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Separation and Utilization of Coal-Based Solid Waste

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 6566

Special Issue Editors

School of Chemical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Interests: carbon nanomaterials; carbon nanofibers; critical metals; germanium; gallium; enrichment and extraction
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Guest Editor
Institute of Resources and Environment Engineering, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization Technology of Coal Waste Resources, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China
Interests: resource utilization of solid wastes; coal-fired flue gas pollution controlling; CO2 capture

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Guest Editor
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454003, China
Interests: civil engineering; geotechnical engineering; computational modeling; sustainable construction materials
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Guest Editor
National Engineering Research Center of Coal Preparation and Purification, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
Interests: solid waste treatment; stabilization/solidification; inorganic materials; heavy metal transformation; soil remediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Coal-based solid waste generally includes coal gangue, coal ash, coal gasification slag, coal liquefaction residue, coal tar pitch, coke tar residue, desulfurized gypsum, etc. Coal-based solid waste is not only waste that is harmful to the environment but also a valuable resource. There would be a series of environmental problems including land occupation, heavy pollution, and air pollution, caused by the improper disposal of these wastes. However, great social and economic benefits would also be achieved with proper disposal approaches. Therefore, rational and efficient utilization should be an important way to deal with the problems. By now, even though many utilization methods for coal-based solid wastes, such as the recovery of carbon, re-combustion, cement production, etc. have been proposed, there are still key scientific and technical issues that have not been clearly elucidated. Thus, more studies should be done in this research area.

The aim of the Special Issue is to publish articles containing the original and creative ideas which can provide inspiration for the treatment of coal-based solid wastes. The re-utilization of coal-based solid wastes can certainly well fit the scope of the journal Sustainability.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

  • New exploration on chemical and physical properties of coal-based solid waste;
  • Separation of carbon resources from coal-based solid waste by flotation, extraction, and other methods;
  • Extraction of valuable elements from coal-based solid waste;
  • Preparation of functional materials by coal-based solid waste, such as carbon materials, adsorption materials, cementitious materials, and building materials, etc;
  • Other value-added utilization of coal-based solid waste;
  • Clean disposal ways for coal-based solid waste.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Peng Li
Prof. Dr. Yanxia Guo
Prof. Dr. Baolin Xing
Dr. Quanzhi Tian
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • flotation
  • extraction
  • valuable elements
  • value-added utilization
  • carbon materials
  • adsorption materials
  • cementitious materials
  • building materials
  • clean disposal

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 4539 KiB  
Article
Preparation and Electrochemical Performance of Activated Composite Carbon Nanofibers Using Extraction Residue from Direct Coal Liquefaction Residue
by Jingyi Liu, Jing Wu, Tongxin Qiao, Peng Li and Daoguang Teng
Sustainability 2024, 16(6), 2331; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16062331 - 12 Mar 2024
Viewed by 940
Abstract
Organic carbon extracted from direct coal liquefaction residue (DLCR) is an ideal precursor for the preparation of carbon materials. However, investigations into the utilization of the extraction residue (ER) are rarely reported. In this work, ER from DCLR was pretreated with H2 [...] Read more.
Organic carbon extracted from direct coal liquefaction residue (DLCR) is an ideal precursor for the preparation of carbon materials. However, investigations into the utilization of the extraction residue (ER) are rarely reported. In this work, ER from DCLR was pretreated with H2O2 to afford oxidized extraction residue (OER). Then, the OER was mixed with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) in N,N-dimethylformamide for the preparation of composite carbon nanofibers by electrospinning. With adding 80 wt.% OER, the composite carbon nanofibers still demonstrate a clear fiber profile and smooth surface under a scanning electron microscope, indicating that the OER has good solubility with PAN in N,N-dimethylformamide. The electrochemical performance characterization of the activated composite carbon nanofiber shows that the P-OER60-AC (activated composite carbon nanofibers prepared with 60 wt.% of OER and 40 wt.% of PAN) has a better electrochemical performance with a specific capacitance of 97 F/g at 0.5 A/g, as compared to the others. Additionally, the P-OER80-AC (activated composite carbon nanofibers prepared with 80 wt.% of OER and 20 wt.% of PAN) is also considerable for the perspective of coal-based solid waste treatment and utilization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Separation and Utilization of Coal-Based Solid Waste)
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14 pages, 4313 KiB  
Article
Effect of Solvent Pretreatment on the Flash Pyrolysis Performance of Yinggema Lignite
by Wen-Long Mo, Hui Kan, Ting Wu, Xiao-Bo Hu, Ya-Ya Ma, Jia Guo, Wen-Cang Guo, Xian-Yong Wei and Naeem Akram
Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 11760; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511760 - 31 Jul 2023
Viewed by 1379
Abstract
Yinggema lignite (YL) was pretreated with isometric acetone/carbon disulfide mixed solvent to obtain the residue (RYL) and, then, RYL was separated by density difference with carbon tetrachloride to obtain the light residue (LRYL). The flash pyrolysis performances of [...] Read more.
Yinggema lignite (YL) was pretreated with isometric acetone/carbon disulfide mixed solvent to obtain the residue (RYL) and, then, RYL was separated by density difference with carbon tetrachloride to obtain the light residue (LRYL). The flash pyrolysis performances of YL and LRYL were analyzed by thermogravimetry–Fourier transform infrared spectrometer–Gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (TG-FTIR-GC/MS). The results showed that solvent pretreatment could remove some small molecules in the coal and swell the used coal, leading to the increase in pyrolysis reactivity. The intensity and absorption peak area of C=O from LRYL were significantly reduced compared to YL, resulting from the high hydrogen-donating ability of acetone. The main gaseous products of both samples are H2O, CH4, CO2, and CO; the hydrocarbons detected by GC/MS in the pyrolysis products of YL and LRYL at 450 °C were mainly alkanes, alkenes, and arenes, with the higher relative contents of alkanes of 31.1% and 36.2%, followed by arenes of 27.1% and 22.6%, respectively. The oxygen-containing compounds were mainly alcohols and phenols. It is speculated that the pretreated coal could expose more oxygen-containing functional groups, facilitating their conversion to phenolic hydroxyl groups during the pyrolysis process, resulting in more phenolic compounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Separation and Utilization of Coal-Based Solid Waste)
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13 pages, 2909 KiB  
Article
Rapid Analysis of Composition of Coal Gangue Based on Deep Learning and Thermal Infrared Spectroscopy
by Liang Song, Ying Yu, Zelin Yan, Dong Xiao, Yongqi Sun, Xuanxuan Zhang, Xingkai Li, Binbin Cheng, Han Gao and Dong Bai
Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 16210; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142316210 - 5 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1937
Abstract
Coal gangue is the main solid waste in coal mining areas, and its annual emissions account for about 10% of coal production. The composition information of coal gangue is the basis of reasonable utilization of coal gangue, and according to the composition information [...] Read more.
Coal gangue is the main solid waste in coal mining areas, and its annual emissions account for about 10% of coal production. The composition information of coal gangue is the basis of reasonable utilization of coal gangue, and according to the composition information of coal gangue, one can choose the appropriate application scene. The reasonable utilization of coal gangue can not only effectively alleviate the environmental problems in mining areas but also produce significant economic and social benefits. Chemical analysis techniques are the principal ones used in traditional coal gangue analysis; however, they are slow and expensive. Many researchers have used machine learning techniques to analyze the spectral data of coal gangue, primarily random forests (RFs), extreme learning machines (ELMs), and two-hidden-layer extreme learning machines (TELMs). However, these techniques are heavily reliant on the preprocessing of the spectral data. This research suggests a quick analysis approach for coal gangue based on thermal infrared spectroscopy and deep learning in light of the drawbacks of the aforementioned methodologies. The proposed deep learning model is named SR-TELM, which extracts spectral features using a convolutional neural network (CNN) consisting of a spatial attention mechanism and residual connections and implements content prediction with TELM as a regressor, which can effectively overcome the dependence on preprocessing. The usefulness and speed of SR-TELM in coal gangue analysis were demonstrated by comparing several models in order to verify the proposed coal gangue analysis model. The experimental findings show that, for the prediction tasks of moisture, ash, volatile matter, and fixed carbon content, respectively, the SR-TELM model attained an R2 of 0.947, 0.972, 0.967, and 0.981 and an RMSE of 0.274, 4.040, 1.567, and 2.557 with a test time of just 0.03 s. It offers a method for the analysis of coal gangue that is low cost, highly effective, and highly reliable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Separation and Utilization of Coal-Based Solid Waste)
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15 pages, 6638 KiB  
Article
Experimental Investigation of Particle Size Alteration and the Selective Crushing Phenomenon of Gangue during the Jaw Crushing Process
by Lei Zhu, Wenzhe Gu, Tianqi Song and Fengqi Qiu
Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12395; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912395 - 29 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1470
Abstract
This study examines the particle size and distribution of the main chemical components of gangue during the crushing process. Coal mine gangue was chosen as the research object, and its particle size and chemical components at various crusher discharge settings were examined through [...] Read more.
This study examines the particle size and distribution of the main chemical components of gangue during the crushing process. Coal mine gangue was chosen as the research object, and its particle size and chemical components at various crusher discharge settings were examined through screening, grinding, chemical composition testing, and other methods. The findings demonstrate that the characteristic particle size in the gangue particle size distribution model has a logarithmic upward trend as the width of the discharge port increases. In contrast, the uniformity index has shown an exponential downward trend. The analysis of the distribution rate and enrichment ratio of the main chemical components of the gangue at different widths of the discharge port shows that the gangue exhibits obvious selective crushing during the crushing process. The distribution rate of each component is affected by the size of the screen aperture to various extents. As the discharge port width increases, the elements of CaO and MgO are enriched in the coarse-grained products, while those containing Fe2O3 are enriched from fine-grained to coarse-grained. Gangue particles containing Al2O3, SiO2, and C are enriched in the fine-grained product. In addition, by analyzing the alterations in the main chemical components of gangue at different particle size intervals, it was found that the amount of each component first rises and then falls, and the trend of enrichment ratio to particle size follows an exponential pattern. The research results have significance for guiding the selection of resource utilization methods of gangue with different particle sizes after crushing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Separation and Utilization of Coal-Based Solid Waste)
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