Parametric Study of Coal Liberation Behavior Using Silica Grinding Media

Abstract

This study evaluates the coal liberation behavior using silica as the grinding media by assessing the effects of four operating factors including nominal feed size, media size, shaft speed and grinding time, each of three levels on two response variables, the product P80 and the specific energy. The coal material used in this study was mixed-phase particles commonly referred to as middlings, sampled from dense medium circuit at the Leatherwood preparation plant in Kentucky. One-third fractional factorial design of resolution III was implemented. Since silica was obtained in three standard size ranges as per manufacturer's design, media size was qualitative while other factors were quantitative. My undiluted gratitude goes to Almighty Allah for the gift of life and the successful completion of my second master's program. I thank my family most especially my wife, Olabimpe Cynthia Fasuyi and my daughter, Bushrah Ebunoluwa Adeniji. I appreciate my parents and my in-laws for their support through the challenging times. I cannot thank my thesis advisor, Dr.