• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.16-23
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• 2009

It is strongly desired for coal-fired power plants to utilize not only low-rank coals with high moisture contents, but also lowering cost with diversifying fuel sources. In this study, combustion characteristics of low rank coal with high moisture, and standard pulverized coals are experimentally investigated using TGA (Thermogravimetric Analysis) and DTF (drop tube furnace). The coals tested are three kinds of coal with moisture content ranging from 8.32 to 26.82%. The results show that under the air combustion condition, the burn-out time at TGA rises as moisture content increases, and standard pulverized coal with 8.32% moisture content showed the lowest activation energy of 55.73 kJ/mol. In case of the high amount of moisture, the combustion efficiency decreases due to evaporation heat loss, and unburned carbon in ash produced at combustion process in DTF increased. Aslo, initial deformation temperature of slag attached in alumina tube of DTF decreased with lowering the crytallinity of anorthite and augite. To improve the combustion reactivity and efficiency, it is effective to upgrade through drying the high moisture coal to moisture level (less than 10%) of standard pulverized coal.

• Clean Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2018

This study introduced a treatment process that was developed to treat Indonesian low-rank coal with high-ash content, which has the same characteristics as residual coal from the biosolubilization process. The treatment process includes separation of ash, solid-liquid separation, pelletizing, and drying. To reduce the ash content, flotation was performed using 4-methyl-2-pentanol (MIBC) as frother, and kerosene, waste oil, and cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) as collectors. The increasing amount of collector had an effect on combustible coal recovery and ash reduction. After flotation, a filter press, extruder, and an oven drier were used to make a dried coal pellet. Then another coal pellet was made using asphalt as a binder. The compressive strength and friability of the coal pellets were tested and compared.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.340-346
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• 2013

Study on clean and efficient utilization technology for low rank coal with high moisture content is actively ongoing due to limited reserves of petroleum and of high grade coal and serious climate change caused by fossil fuel usage. In the present study, supercritical water gasification of low rank coal was performed. With increasing reaction temperature, content of combustible gases such as $H_2$ and $CH_4$ in the syngas increased while the $CO_2$ content decreased. As the reaction pressure increased from 210 to 300 bar, the $CO_2$ content in the syngas increased while the hydrocarbon gas content decreased. The $H_2$ and $CH_4$ content in the syngas increased slightly with pressure. With the addition of Pd, Pt, and Ru catalysts, it was possible to improve the production of $H_2$. Moreover, the increase of active metal content in the catalyst increased the $H_2$ productivity. The Ru catalyst shows the best performance for increasing the $H_2$ content in the syngas, while decreasing the $CO_2$ content.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.44-53
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• 2013

In this study, the economic evaluation for imported coals was conducted for power plant based on thermo-dynamical performance analysis. The number of coal types considered was 1,755 imported by five power generation companies in Korea during the 2010-2012. The higher heating value (HHV) of the coals ranged 4,000-6,500 kcal/kg, mostly sub-bituminous. The 1D thermo-dynamical performance modeling was performed for a 500 MWe standard power plant using PROATES code. It was founded that the low rank coals had negative effects on the plant efficiency mainly due to the increased heat loss by moisture, hydrogen and flue gas. Based on the performance analysis, the economic performance of the coals was evaluated. The apparent price of low-rank coals tended to be significantly lower than design coal; for example, the unit price of coal with a HHV of 4,000 kcal/kg was 57% of the reference coal having 6,080 kcal/kg. Considering the negative effects leading to a decrease in the thermal performance, heating value compensation, and increased parasite load, the corrected unit cost for the coal with 4,000 kcal/kg was 90.7% of the reference coal. Overall, the cost saving by imported coals was not high as expected.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.11a
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• pp.111-114
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• 2012

The ignition behavior of single coal particles of five kindes of coal with different ranks (low volatile bituminous, low volatile sub-bituminous, high volatile bituminous, lignite) with particle size of $150-200{\mu}m$ was investigated at high heating rate condition. Particles were injected into a laminar flow reactor and the ignition behavior was observed with high speed cinematography. Sub-bituminous were observed to ignite homogeneously; however, low volatile bituminous coal and lignite undergo fragmentation prior to igntion. The observation was analyzed with previous work.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.231-235
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• 2015

The characteristics of binderless briquettes for dried low-rank coal was studied in this work. Two kinds of Indonesian coals were used to briquette after drying them in electric oven. The characteristics of briquettes have been examined by moisture contents, particle size, hydraulic force, and storing period. The optimum moisture contents of briquettes were observed at between 10 wt% and 15 wt%. The strength of coal briquette was stronger as particle size became smaller. The strength of coal briquette was proportional to the hydraulic force under 300 kN, whereas there was little difference among the briquettes made at more than 300 kN of hydraulic force. The strength of briquettes sharply decreased for a week after produced, and then showed the tendency of converging. The results from this work can be a useful guideline of manufacturing and managing upgraded coal briquettes.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.213-220
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• 2009

The experimental characteristics for fry drying method was investigated using low-rank coal with a high moisture content. Final temperature, mixing ratio between coal and kerosene, content of coal or kerosene, total weight of the mixture and mixing methods were varied to find out the optimum conditions by measuring moisture of coal. Evaporation of the coal moisture was not completed below $120^{\circ}C$ of final temperature. The amount of moisture was not significantly different over $130^{\circ}C$. Coal moisture was easily evaporated by increasing coal content, which showed that the moisture evaporation could be significantly enhanced by the remove of evaporated moisture from kerosene rather than by heat transfer to the coal. High total weight of the mixture resulted in lowering moisture content of coal with long evaporation time. On the other hand, low total weight was difficult to reduce the moisture below a certain level, but could reduce evaporation time. Thus, it can concluded that kerosene content should be lowered to the extent maintaining the mobility of the mixture in order to enhance evaporation. It was also observed that evacuation and mixing by using nitrogen could improve drying of coal.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.693-701
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• 2016

Steam gasification of low rank coals is possible at relatively low temperature and low pressure, and thus shows higher efficiency compared to high rank coals. In this study, the gasification reactivity of four different Indonesian low rank coals (Samhwa, Eco, Roto, Kideco-L) was evaluated in $T=700-800^{\circ}C$. The low rank coals containing $53.8{\pm}3.4$ wt% volatile matter in proximate analysis and $71.6{\pm}1.2$ wt% carbon in ultimate analysis showed comparable gasification reactivity. In addition, $K_2CO_3$ catalyst rapidly accelerated the reaction rate at $700^{\circ}C$, and all of the coals were converted over 90% within 1 hour. The XRD analysis showed no significant difference in carbonization between the coals, and the FT-IR spectrum showed similar functional groups except for differences due to moisture and minerals. TGA results in pyrolysis ($N_2$) and $CO_2$ gasification atmosphere showed very similar behavior up to $800^{\circ}C$ regardless of the coal species, which is consistent with the steam gasification results. This confirms that the indirect evaluation of the reactivity can be made by the above instrumental analyses.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.199-209
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• 2010

Coal gasification technology in the sector of domestic clean coal technologies is being into the limelight since recent dramatic rise of international oil price. In this study, we used a low rank coal from Inner Mongolia, China as a starting material for gasification. Various properties including optical, mineralogical, X-ray spectroscopic, X-ray diffraction, and drying property were measured and tested in order to estimate the suitability of the coal to gasification. The coal was identified as a brown coal of lignite group from the measurement of vitrinite reflectance. The coal has very low slagging and fouling potentials, and the ignition temperature is about $250^{\circ}C$. The major impurities consist of quartz, siderite, and clay minerals. Additionally, the coal had moisture content above 28%. Tests for finding effective drying method showed that the microwave drying is more effective than thermal drying.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.312-318
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• 2011

We have investigated the kinetics and catalytic activity of $CO_2$-lignite gasification with various metal precursors as catalysts. $K_2CO_3$, $Mn(NO_3)_2$, and $Ce(NO_3)_3$ were used and impregnated on a coal using an evaporator. The gasification experiments were carried out with the low rank coal loaded with 5 wt% catalyst at the temperature range from $700{\sim}900^{\circ}C$ and atmospheric pressure with the $N_2-CO_2$ reactant gas mixture. The catalytic effect on the gasification rate of the low rank coal with $CO_2$ was determined by the thermogravimetric analyzer. It was observed that the low rank coal reached the complete carbon conversion regardless of the kinds of catalysts at $900^{\circ}C$ from the results of TGA. The catalytic activity was ranked as 5 wt% $K_2CO_3$ > 5 wt% $Mn(NO_3)_2$ > 5 wt% $Ce(NO_3)_3$ > Non-catalyst at $900^{\circ}C$. The gasification rate increased with increasing the temperature. The activation energy of the catalytic gasification with 5 wt% $K_2CO_3$ was 119.0 kJ/mol, which was the lowest among all catalysts.