Characteristics of Water Contaminants from Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) Process—Effect of Coal Properties and Gasification Pressure

Magdalena Pankiewicz-Sperka, Krzysztof Kapusta, Wioleta Basa and Katarzyna Stolecka
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Magdalena Pankiewicz-Sperka: Department of Energy Saving and Air Protection, Główny Instytut Górnictwa, Central Mining Institute, Plac Gwarków 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Krzysztof Kapusta: Department of Energy Saving and Air Protection, Główny Instytut Górnictwa, Central Mining Institute, Plac Gwarków 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Wioleta Basa: Department of Energy Saving and Air Protection, Główny Instytut Górnictwa, Central Mining Institute, Plac Gwarków 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Katarzyna Stolecka: Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 18, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-12

Abstract: One of the most important issues during UCG process is wastewater production and treatment. Condensed gasification wastewater is contaminated by many hazardous compounds. The composition of the generated UCG-derived wastewater may vary depending on the type of gasified coal and conditions of the gasification process. The main purpose of this study was a qualitative and quantitative characterization of the UCG wastewater produced during four different UCG experiments. Experiments were conducted using semi-anthracite and bituminous coal samples at two distinct pressures, i.e., 20 and 40 bar. The conducted studies revealed significant relationships between the physicochemical composition of the wastewater and the coal properties as well as the gasification pressure. The strongest impact is noticeable in the case of organic pollutants, especially phenols, BTEX and PAH’s. The most abundant group of pollutants were phenols. Conducted studies showed significantly higher concentration levels for bituminous coal: 29.25–49.5 mg/L whereas for semi-anthracite effluents these concentrations were in much lower range 2.1–29.7 mg/L. The opposite situation occurs for BTEX, higher concentrations were in wastewater from semi-anthracite gasification: 5483.1–1496.7 µg/L, while in samples from bituminous coal gasification average BTEX concentrations were: 2514.3–1354.4 µg/L. A similar relationship occurs for the PAH’s concentrations. The higher values were in case of wastewater from semi-anthracite coal experiments and were in range 362–1658 µg/L while from bituminous coal gasification PAH’s values are in lower ranges 407–1090 µg/L. The studies conducted have shown that concentrations of phenols, BTEX and PAH’s decrease with increasing pressure. Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed to enhance the interpretation of the obtained experimental data and showed a very strong relationship between three parameters: phenols, volatile phenols and COD cr .

Keywords: underground coal gasification; SNG; UCG wastewater; environmental impact assessment; correlation analysis; effluents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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