In-line method for the beneficiation of coal and the formation of a coal-in-oil combustible fuel therefrom

Claim 1

An in-line method for the beneficiation of coal and the formation of a coal-in-oil combustible fuel therefrom, comprising: (a) comminuting coal in water to produce a coal-in-water slurry comprising impurity liberated coal particles at least as fine as 40 microns weight mean particle size, then (b) mixing the coal-in-water slurry with light oil as agglomerating liquid having a specific gravity of less than of the order of 1 g/cm 3 to micro-agglomerate the impurity liberated coal particles and primarily dissociate inorganic impurities and some water therefrom, the light oil agglomerating liquid being added at not more than of the order of 20 wt % of the total weight of the solids of the coal-in-water slurry, then (c) separating the micro-agglomerated, impurity liberated coal from the dissociated inorganic impurities and water, then (d) mixing the separated, micro-agglomerated, impurity liberated coal with heavy fuel oil, having a specific gravity greater than of the order of 0.9 g/cm 3 , as agglomerating liquid to produce relatively larger agglomerates comprising an average size no greater than of the order of 3 mm and primarily dissociate water with some inorganic impurities which were present in the micro-agglomerated, impurity liberated coal and leave a residual amount of at least of the order of 5 wt % water in the relatively larger agglomerates, then (e) separating the relatively larger agglomerates from the dissociated water and inorganic impurities, and then (f) mixing the separated, relatively larger agglomerates with make-up heavy oil additive to form a coal-in-oil combustible fuel.