Assessment of Water Quality of Different Coal Washeries

Abstract

Indian coals are believed to be of drift origin and so it is necessary to wash in washery. A huge quantity of water is required in coal washing. A plant with a capacity of 100 tons of coal/h would require in the course of 8h shift from 600,000 to 2,000,000 gallons of water. This feed water in the working process comes out from the coal preparation plant in the form of effluents, containing the dirty minerals and impurities associated with the raw coal.For this water quality analysis was conducted out in three washeries -Balanda coal washery, Talcher, Ib valley coal washery, Jharsuguda and Himgir coal washery, Sundergarh. The project was carried out with the following objectives: To assess the water quality of different samples from three coal washeries. Compare the analyzed characteristics of water samples with Indian Standards.Water samples were gathered from three coal washeries which are Balanda coal washery, Talcher, Ib Valley Coal Washery (Samleshwari), Jharsuguda, Himgir coal washery, Sundergarh of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL). Based on the Water quality analysis the following conclusions were made: In this present work, water samples were gathered from three coal washeries namely Balanda coal washery, Talcher, Ib Valley Coal Washery (Samleshwari), Jharsuguda, Himgir coal washery, Sundergarh of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) analysed for 17 water quality parameters using procedure of APHA,1998. Based on the water quality analysis the following conclusions were made:In Balanda coal washery, Talcher all the water samples were examined and found that the pH of S2, S3 and S4 had a quite low pH which is acidic and tends to be corrosive but the pH of S4 was within the permissible limit. MOEF Schedule VI Indian Standard (2006) indicates that it ought to be inside 5.5-9.0..Also the water samples S1, S2, S3 and S4 (108 to 184 NTU) had turbidity beyond the permissible limit.MOEF Schedule VI Indian Standard (2006) indicates that it ought to be inside 10 NTU