Rapid Coal Analysis with the Online X-ray Elemental Analyzer OXEA^®

Abstract

To control the mineral processing, e.g. coal preparation, an online coal analyzer system should be installed on a bypass belt. Compared to main-belt installations an improved accuracy is obtained at a bypass stream, because the material stream can be crushed down to a constant particle size distribution and shaped to a constant cross section profile. To minimize sample preparation, the material stream running across a bypass should be small, but the thin material layers require a re-design of the existing coal analyzers. The bypass was optimized for the OXEA^® Online X-ray Elemental Analyzer regarding a constant material layer with a smooth surface. Consequently only minor changes were necessary concerning the OXEA^®. However, the state-of-the-art microwave transmission moisture meters are designed for thicker material layers. Therefore a novel microwave transmission moisture meter was developed. As in the past, it is based on the measurement of the microwave attenuation and phase-shift, but the new device also makes it possible to measure thin material layers all the way down to 3 cm thickness with a much higher accuracy.