The effects of agglomerant/coal weight ratio (ACR), grinding time, slurry pH, and agglomeration time on the performances of a selective agglomeration process using n-heptane as agglomerant were investigated for Upper Freeport and Pittsburgh #8 coals. The experimental conditions were selected following a statistical central composite design. Statistical regression models including inverse terms were developed to predict the process performances using the various operating variables. The response surfaces constructed with these models showed that the Btu recovery for the two coals was generally poor when the ACR was less than 0·2. It was also shown that high slurry pH improved both the ash and inorganic sulfur rejections for the two coals. For Pittsburgh #8 coal, the improvement in the inorganic sulfur rejection at high slurry pH was more pronounced when finer particle size and/or longer agglomeration time were used.
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KIM et al. (1994) studied this question.