Method of recovering coal by coal handling operations and system therefor.

摘要

This specification discloses a greatly simplified method and system for recovering coal from a particulate coal bearing slurry (1) in which an appropriate hydrophobic liquid or emulsion of hydrophobic liquid in water (2) is introduced into the inlet of a centrifugal turbulent flow slurry pump (3) simultaneously with the introduction of said coal bearing slurry to said pump inlet, said hydrophobic liquid being introduced in a quantity sufficient to achieve substantially intimate contact between said hydrophobic liquid and coal particles in said slurry whereby the coal may be separated from the slurry by discharging the slurry from the pump directly over a simple static screen or other suitable separating device (4) whereupon the separated coal matter (5) may be collected for subsequent use. If desired, the coal within said slurry may be additionally agitated in any suitable manner, such as by means of an in-line flow promoting device (7) which causes additional contact between the agglomerates produced by the agitation archieved within the slurry pump (3).