Techno-Economic Analysis of Coal Leaching Processes to Produce Ultra Clean Coal

Coal is the largest energy source in the world. However, coal combustion is also the largest source of CO2 emission that is the main cause of global warming. Indonesia consumed 1 million terajoule of energy from coal in 2020. There are no energy sources that consumed more than coal except light petroleum products. Coal combustion to produce energy emitted SOX, NOX, COX, and fly ashes to the environment and also cause corrosion and clogging to industrial equipment. Sulfur content in the coal produces SOX, meanwhile mineral content becomes fly ashes. Therefore, sulfur and mineral content should be reduced before combustion. Chemical leaching is the way to demineralize and desulfurize coal. Numerous researchers have studied the process to produce ultra clean coal (UCC) that limited the mineral content and sulfur content to less than 1 wt. so it can decrease the adverse effects when it is used as an energy resource in combustion. Various processes such as acid leaching, alkali leaching, peroxide leaching or even acid-alkali leaching have been studied by several researchers. These methods are considered high-cost in regards to the high price of chemicals despite their technical feasibility to produce UCC. Therefore, it is important to conduct economic analysis of the processes. This paper presents techno-economic analysis to compare several leaching processes in order to study their technical and economic feasibility. © 2024 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.