Optimization of performance parameters and investigation of the heavy-medium separation column for the separation of 3-13mm steam coal.

To effectively separate 3–13 mm steam coal, new separation equipment which was a heavy-medium separation column was designed and tested in this study. Particles were measured to analyze the changes in the axial medium force of particles in the medium by employing the force measuring system. The influence of the medium flow rate (q), medium density (ρ), separation column height (h), and feed volume (g) on the separation effect was investigated by using the control variable method to establish the optimum separation condition. Under the optimum separation condition, the yield and the ash content of the clean coal were 74.05% and 16.18%, respectively. Based on the single factor study, the Box-Behnken response surface methodology (BBRSM) was used to investigate the influence of each interaction factor on the separation effect. The significance of each factor on the quantitative efficiency was in the order of ρ > q > h. Through the regression analysis, the mathematical model for the relationship between the quantitative efficiency and the separation parameters was established. The predicted quantitative efficiency and experimental quantitative efficiency were 87.88% and 89.32%, respectively. The difference between them was small, verifying the high accuracy and reliability of the prediction results of the regression equation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]