Experiences in Dry Coarse Coal Separation Using X-Ray-Transmission-Based Sorting

摘要

Coal sorting with an x-ray-transmission (XRT) sensor has experienced a lot of development since first described by Jenkinson et al. in 1974 Powerful computers and increasingly sensitive X-ray scintillation counters enabled the development of high-performance sensor-based sorting machines. The first industrial installation of a belt-type XRT sorting for coal has been in operation since 2004. It is upgrading high-quality coal from 1% ash to 0.7% ash for cathode production. Since 2010 chute-type sorters are in the South African market and, next to production, have been used for extensive test work. Improvements on both separation efficiency and availability of containerized semi-mobile systems have been achieved. The article will introduce the principle of the technology and will summarize the latest experiences in both separation efficiency and operational stability.