Apparatus for drying coal

Claim 1

In a coal drying installation, housing means defining an interior drying chamber closed off from the outer atmosphere, coal feeding means operatively connected with said housing means for feeding to the interior thereof coal particles to be dried in said drying chamber, fluidizing means carried by said housing in the interior thereof beneath said drying chamber for forming a fluidized bed of coal particles in said drying chamber, tubular heating means situated in said drying chamber for controlling the interior temperature thereof and for directly contacting coal particles in the fluidized bed, fluid-supply means communicating with said tubular heating means for supplying heating fluid thereto and wherein said fluid-supply means also communicates with said fluidizing means for supplying to the latter a fluidizing fluid which is the same as the fluid supplied to said tubular heating means, heat-exchanger means operatively connected with said fluid-supply means for heating the fluid supplied thereby to said tubular heating means, coke-cooling means for dry-quenching coke from a coke oven, said coke-cooling means being operatively connected with said heat-exchanger means for delivering to the latter heat to be transferred thereby to the fluid supplied by said fluid-supply means to said tubular heating means, and discharge means operatively connected with said housing means for discharging dry coal from the fluidized bed in said chamber, said tubular heating means including a plurality of upright walls forming paritions which define between themselves relatively narrow spaces in which the fluidized bed of coal particles is located, and said tubular heating means including coils which form parts of said walls and which have a diameter greater than the thickness of said walls so that said coils project laterally from the walls of which they form a part, said coils including elongated substantially horizontal coil portions situated one above the other across the interior of said drying chamber with the horizontal portions of the coils in each wall being interconnected at their ends so that said coils, because they project laterally from the surfaces of the walls of which they form a part serve to deflect the particles to cause them to repeatedly strike against said walls and coils for contributing to the drying action by repeated direct contact with said walls and coIls thereof.