Evaluation of SDBS surfactant on coal wetting performance with static methods: Preliminary laboratory tests

ABSTRACT

Coal dust contributes to lung diseases in coal miners. Spraying water mixed with surfactants is a method to suppress high concentration coal dust. This study presents the evaluation of the effect of SDBS surfactant on coals. Surfactant concentrations ranging from 0% to 1.0% were analyzed through the characterization of coal wettability and surfactant adsorption by using sink test, capillary penetration test, drop penetration test, surface tension test, and zeta potential test. Results show that SDBS surfactant greatly increased the coal wetting performance and the 0.02%-0.40% concentration was suggested as the optimum concentration range to improve coal wettability of coals.

KEYWORDS:

• Coal dust
• surfactant
• coal wettability
• sink test

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the technicians Mujesira Vukancic and Anusha Kumara at Curtin University for their invaluable help with the experiments.