Experimental Study on Demineralization of Coal with Pseudomonas Mendocina Strain B6–1 Bacteria to Obtain Clean Fuel

Abstract

We present the results of the investigations carried out on the demineralization of coal of the Rajmahal Gondwana basin of India using Pseudomonas mendocina strain B6-1. Petrographically these coals are characterized by high concentration of inertinite macerals with subordinate amount of vitrinite and liptinite macerals. The mineral matter content occurs in high concentration which gives a high ash yield. This coal contains relatively high content of major, minor and trace elements when compared with the Clarke values in coal.After the bacterial treatment a considerable reduction in the elemental content of oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur was seen. Reduction in the ash content (>5%) was achieved and variable degrees of removal of the various major, minor and trace element concentration was also noticed. Nearly 59% removal of Mn, 53% of Na, 13% of Fe was achieved among the major/minor elements while nearly 54% of As, 41% of Cd, 39% of Cu, 34% of Ni, 32% of Zn, 13% of Cr, 43% of Co and 66% of Pb could be removed. Arsenic, Fe and Ca have a strong positive correlation with the ash removal percentage indicating that the samples having increased concentration of these elements are prone to demineralization with Pseudomonas mendocina strain B6-1. Whereas the elements like Ni, Zn, Cr and Cu maintain a strong negative correlation with the ash removal percentage indicating that their enrichment could have hampered the process of demineralization.

Demineralization of Rajmahal Gondwana Coals by Bacteria: Revelations from X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) Studies

“…The XRD studies indicate that the argillaceous mineral matter mainly consists of illite, montmorillonite, and kaolinite, along with other mineral groups. Chemically these coals contain 2.39% moisture, 29.89% ash, 34.11% volatile matter, and 31.30% fixed carbon (Singh et al, 2014). They have further reported the concentration of major, minor, and trace elements to be significantly high in the Rajmahal coal as compared to the Clarke values for the bituminous coals.…”

“…The methods adopted for petrography, proximate and ultimate analyses of the Permian Rajmahal coals have been discussed in detail by Singh et al (2014). The FTIR spectra were recorded by FTIR spectrophotometer (PerkinElmer Spectrum version 10.03.05) with KBr pellets (transmission mode) in the Department of Chemistry, Banaras Hindu University.…”

“…The coal contains sufficient quantity of mineral matter (mean 28.45%) which is dominated by the argillaceous minerals as revealed by Singh et al (2014). The XRD studies indicate that the argillaceous mineral matter mainly consists of illite, montmorillonite, and kaolinite, along with other mineral groups.…”

“…Since Rajmahal coals have elevated ash content and are rich in environmentally sensitive elements like Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Pb, Ni, and Zn (Singh et al, 2014), they require beneficiation. These coals were treated with Pseudomonas mendocina strain B6-1 to see the demineralizing capacity of this bacterium.…”

Demineralization of Gondwana coal with Pseudomonas mendocina strain B6-1: a case study of coal from Gopinathpur top and bottom seams of Mugma mine, Dhanbad, Jharkhand (India)

“…Since studies on the demineralization of coal using bacterial biomass have not been carried out in details, there is much scope of such investigations. Contributions on limited numbers of coal samples have been made by Singh et al (2012Singh et al ( , 2014aSingh et al ( , b, 2015c.…”