ANALYSIS OF DENSE MEDIUM BENEFICIATION OF DANDOT COAL FOR USE IN CEMENT INDUSTRY IN PAKISTAN

This research entails the extent of up-gradation of Dandot coal, using conventional gravity based sink-float separation techniques, to make it technoeconomically acceptable for the cement industry as a partial substitution of imported coal. In this research, various sizes of run-of-mine coal samples were subjected to specific gravity based sink-float test and resultant fractions were analyzed. Experimental results of sink-float analysis showed that the size fraction of -50mm to +2mm at a specific gravity of 1.75 produces a product which is techno-economically acceptable and simultaneously qualifies the quality parameters established by the cement industry i.e., Cumulative Yield, Ash and Sulphur of 68%, 14% and 2.82% respectively. The product is suitable for substituting around 40% of the imported coal in the local cement industry that can save substantial foreign exchange i.e., approximately 240 million USD per annum.