High Pressure Oxydesulphurisation of Coal—Effect of Oxidizing Agent, Solvent, Shear and Agitator Configuration

The ambient temperature high pressure oxydesulphurisation technique was investigated to reduce the sulphur content. Prince of Wales coal was chosen for this study. The focus of the study was to investigate the reduction of both pyritic and organic sulphur while changing the KMnO₄/Coal ratio, agitation speed, agitator configuration, and shear. The effect of different concentrations of acetone as a solvent and effect of particle size on the sulphur removal was also studied by a series of experimental runs at ambient temperature. Heating value recovery was found to be increased with the decreased KMnO₄/Coal ratio and with decreased acetone concentration. It was found that sulphur removal was enhanced with the increase in shear using a turbine impeller. The effect of particle size was more significant on the pyritic sulphur removal as compared to the organic sulphur removal while heating value recovery was found to increase with decreased desulphurization tome for both, under atmospheric and high pressure.