Cleaning of fine asphaltite by oil agglomeration process

Abstract

In Turkey, asphaltite deposits are located in the Southeastern Anatolia region in the form of fleets around the Sirnak province and its environs. According to the research, although the lower thermal values of Sirnak asphaltites are between about 11–24 MJ/Kg, the ash contents are between 35% and 55% and the total sulfur rates are between 3% and 8%. Asphaltite with high-ash content ratios can be cleaned by applying coal preparation and enrichment methods and made into high-quality energy raw materials with higher calorific value. Most fine-grained coals are disposed of without use or any economic consideration and cause environmental pollution. The oil agglomeration method, which is one of the methods of ore enrichment used to clean very fine coals, can be applied for coal samples. In this study, chemical and sieve analyzes of asphaltite samples taken from the Seguruk and Avgamasya mine sites operating within the borders of the Sirnak province were carried out and oil agglomeration enrichment method was applied with different types of oil and ash content were reduced. Under the conditions determined, the ash content of the Seguruk asphaltite sample called sample-A was reduced from 45.14% to 19.91% and the ash content of the Avgamasya asphaltite sample called Sample-B was reduced from 43.65% to 18.72%.