GRANULATION OF COAL

PURPOSE:To granulate coal at a high deashing rate and at a low operation cost without lowering separability of ash even when heavy fuel oil is used as a binder, by previously coating the surface of a coal particle in an aq. slurry with light oil and then agitating and granulating the coal particle with addition of a binder. CONSTITUTION:Coal and water are supplied each to a wet mill 10 and a light oil, e.g., kerosine of b.p. lower than that of heavy fuel oil is supplied via a conduit 20. The coal is pulverized into a particle size of about 20mum, agitated and mixed with water to form a slurry, and the surface of the coal is coated with the light oil. Then the slurry is sent from the wet mill 10 via a carrying passage 13a to an agitating granulation vessel, in which the coal particle in the slurry is agitated and granulated with addition of a binder such as heavy fuel oil. Since the coal particle surface is coated with the light oil having strong affinity to coal, it is possible to granulate coal at a high deashing rate and at a low operation cost without lowering separability of ash even when the heavy fuel oil having a weak affinity to coal is used as a binder.