As a prerequisite to producing super-clean coal with any physical coal cleaning process, such as microbubble flotation, the feed coal must be micronized to liberate the finely disseminated mineral matter. The stirred ball mill is regarded as one of the most efficient devices for micronizing coal. Using a five-inch batch mill, the optimum operating conditions have been determined in terms of media size, feed size, media type, stirring speed and percent solids. The rates of breakage determined with monosized feeds are compared on the basis of specific energy consumption. It has been found that a 20:1 ball size/particle size ratio gives optimum grinding conditions.

With the fine particle sizes obtained using stirred ball milling, as well as other fine grinding techniques, a growing concern has been generated regarding the accuracy of these size distributions.

An automated technique has been developed in which a complete mass balanced size distribution can be obtained using an Elzone® 80XY particle size analyzer. A computer program is used to blend the data from successively smaller Orifice tubes, as well as, to determine the weight percent of material in a particle size distribution finer than the lower detection limit of the analyzer. This result is then used to correct the distribution for the missing fine material.