Pneumatic beneficiation of coal fines using the counter-current fluidized cascade

The counter-current gas-fluidized cascade (CFC) is a novel pneumatic device for separating mixed granular solids according to specific gravity. The possible utility of the CFC for beneficiation of coal in all size-ranges is presently under investigation, and in this paper some results are reported on pyrite beneficiation of synthetic pyrite-coal mixtures, and also on pyrite and ash beneficiation of as-received coal. The (geometric) mean particle size, by weight, of the coal used with added pyrite was 153 μm, and of the natural coal 233 μm. Preliminary results on the concentration of pyrite and ash in the reject streams indicate that CFC has some potential of being a simple and low-cost device for coal beneficiation.