Improving energy efficiency of cyclone circuits in coal beneficiation plants by pump-storage systems

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Authors

Zhang, Lijun
Xia, Xiaohua
Zhang, Jiangfeng

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Abstract

A pump storage system (PSS) is introduced to the coal preparation dense medium cyclone (DMC) plants to improve their energy efficiency while maintaining the required medium supply. The DMC processes are very energy intensive and inefficient because the medium supply pumps are constantly over-pumping. The PSS presented is to reduce energy consumption and cost by introducing an addition medium circulation loop. The corresponding pump operation optimization problem in the PSS scheme under timebased electricity tariff is formulated and solved, based on which the financial benefits of the design is investigated using life cycle cost analysis. A case study based on the operation status of a South African coal mine is carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. It is demonstrated that the energy cost can be reduced by more than 50% in the studied case by introducing a 160 m3 storage tank. According to life cycle analysis, the PSS Option 1 yields an annual 38% reduction of the overall cost for the beneficiation plant with a payback period of 2.68 years.

Description

Keywords

Coal beneficiation, Operation optimization, Energy efficiency, Pump storage system (PSS), Dense medium cyclone (DMC) plants

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Zhang, LJ, Xia, X & Zhang, J 2014, 'Improving energy efficiency of cyclone circuits in coal beneficiation plants by pump-storage systems', Applied Energy, vol. 119, pp. 306-313.