Economic Challenges in High-Ash Indian Coal Preparation

The desired coal quality is not same for all the consumers. This quality may be limited to the maximum ash content, Useful Heat Value (UHV), size, or it may be its price. In some cases it is difficult to predict the economic feasibility and to maintain the optimum operating parameters for the washing equipments to achieve this quality. In this article, a methodology is presented to quantify the economic feasibility and to determine the optimum operating parameters accordingly. But in actual practice, these operating parameters vary within certain ranges and affect the product quality. This uncertainty in product quality has been quantified by using a Monte-Carlo-based simulation method. To illustrate, six coals of different characteristics are considered. The result leads to a conclusion that optimum operating conditions for different quality are quite different. This method can be used to determine the optimum operating parameters and to predict the economic feasibility in different situations.