Method of beneficiating and drying trona ore useful for flue gas desulfurization

摘要

A method of producing trona suitable for flue gas desulfurization comprising mechanically mining a trona ore deposit containing insoluble impurities; crushing the mined trona ore to create a mixture of uncalcined trona-rich particles and impurities-rich particles; beneficiating the crushed uncalcined trona ore to obtain a trona-rich, impurities-depleted ore fraction; and drying the trona-rich ore fraction under non-calcining conditions to yield a dry uncalcined trona ore. A preferred embodiment includes concurrently milling and drying the trona-rich, impurities-depleted ore fraction to recover a low moisture content trona product having a high NaHCO3:Na2CO3 ratio, useful for the efficient dry injection desulfurization of flue gas streams.

主权项

1. A method of producing trona suitable for dry injection pollution control comprising
mechanically mining a trona ore deposit containing at least about 5 wt % insoluble impurities; crushing the mined trona ore to create a mixture of uncalcined trona ore particles comprising trona-rich particles and impurities-rich particles; beneficiating the crushed uncalcined trona ore, via a dry separation procedure selected to recover trona-rich particles larger than about ¼ inch in size, wherein the dry separation procedure is selected from the group consisting of density separation, magnetic separation, electrostatic separation, optical separation, x-ray imaging separation, infrared imaging separation and combinations of these, without prior drying of the unbeneficiated ore and the trona-rich particles larger than about ¼ inch in size, to obtain a trona-rich, impurities-depleted ore fraction; and then drying the trona-rich impurities-depleted ore fraction under non-calcining conditions to yield a dry uncalcined trona ore containing less than about 0.1 wt % free moisture.