Abstract:
Coal dense medium separation is a popular beneficiation process used for the upgrading of coal ore into
power station and metallurgical coal. The control systems used in coal beneficiation are often limited to
localised regulatory control of feed rate and medium density. A coal dense medium separation process
can benefit substantially from process control provided that a dynamic model for this process is available
as was previously developed by the authors for a fine coal dense medium cyclone (DMC) circuit. In this
paper, the previous model is adapted to a coarse coal DMC circuit and validated over a wider range of
operating conditions using real plant data. The model is further validated by reducing it to steady-state
to form a partition curve. This curve is then compared to one derived from actual production data. The
derived model is able to provide an estimate of the DMC overflow coal product that should be sufficient
for process control.
