Improving the low-rank coal flotation performance using a novel collector prepared by hot melting of plastic waste into diesel

作者：Wan, He^*; Hu, Xianglin; Luukkanen, Saija; Qu, Juanping; Zhang, Chonghui; Xue, Jiwei; Wang, Sen; Yang, Wei; Bu, Xianzhong^*

来源：SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, 2022, 300: 121883.

DOI：10.1016/j.seppur.2022.121883

• Low -rank coal
• Plastic waste
• Collector
• Hot melting of plastic waste into diesel
• Flotation

Flotation is used to separate inorganic impurities and improve the quality of fine coal. However, the flotation of low-rank coal (LRC) is challenging due to the presence of many oxygen-containing functional groups (OCFG) on the LRC surface. In this work, the effect of a novel collector prepared by hot melting of plastic waste into diesel (XJD-2021-6) on LRC flotation and its interaction mechanism for improving the LRC flotation performance was investigated. The flotation results found that compared with diesel, XJD-2021-6 as a collector significantly improved the combustible matter recovery and effectively decreased the refined coal ash. The results of XPS and FTIR showed that XJD-2021-6 was better than diesel in masking OCTG of LRC surface, especially O=C-O and CO. The contact angle and zeta potential results indicated that after XJD-2021-6 masking OCTG on the LRC surface, it not only strengthened the adsorption of DO on the LRC and enhanced LRC hydrophobicity, but also significantly reduced the electro-negativity of coal particles, weakened the electrostatic repulsion between the air bubble and coal particle, and improved the LRC mineralization effect.