Current status and prospect of the research work on dewatering of fine coal through filtration

Moisture of coal is an crucial indicator of its quality. An excessively high moisture of coal can lead to rise of transport costs and affect further processing and utilization of coal product. In order to promote development of coal dewatering technology, the paper presents a general survey of the status quo of the work on the technologies for fine coal dewatering through filtration, with the focus placed on the following three aspects:size consist modeling; present status of the research and development of high-efficiency filter aids and highly efficient dewatering equipment. It is pointed out that the main problems of the fine coal dewatering technologies currently available are higher moisture of dewatered final product and longer dewatering time. It is held that further work needs to be directed towards optimization of the particle size and size consist modeling, R & D of environmentally-friendly cost-effective and highly effective filter aids and use of more reliable and efficient larger-size dewatering equipment.