Synthesis and characterization of a penetrating and pre-wetting agent for coal seam water injection

Experimental Investigation on Bituminite Dust Suppression Characteristics of a Bonding-Wetting Composite Dust Suppressant

In order to reduce the occupational health hazard of coal dust to miners, surface tension and viscosity tests and bituminous coal powder sedimentation experiments were conducted. A composite dust suppressant with bonding-wetting effects was developed. Meanwhile, based on the FTIR test and peak-differentiating curve fitting, the changes of peak areas of coal samples before and after dust suppressant treatment were investigated, with quantitative analysis on hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups. Gravity drop weight tests and Malvern particle size analyses were carried out. The particle size distribution was studied based on the Boltzmann function model. The characteristic particle size theory was adopted to analyze dust reduction performance and time's effect on the performance. Results show that the surface tension of the composite dust suppressant is 31.02 ± 0.09 mN/m with the viscosity being 84.60 mPa·s for the mixture of 0.1% SDS solution and 0.4% CMC-Na solution being 1:5. The ratio of the hydrophilic group of bituminous coal reaches 97.37% affected by the dust suppressant with a good wetting and cohesiveness effect. The characteristic particle size D 10 of dust increases by 11.77 and 46.67%, D 50 rises by 7.56 and 36.89%, and D 90 grows by 10.56 and 32.96%, respectively. The compressive strengths of the Shenmu coal sample and Lucun coal sample increase by 82.86 and 66.72% compared with that of raw coal after 48 h of dust suppressant treatment. The breakage degree at the end face of treated coal is smaller than that of raw coal. The composite dust suppressant makes the particles in coal more cohesive and effectively weakens the dust-producing property. Research results are of practical significance for improving the effect of water injection on dust reduction.

Effect of Sophorolipid Adsorption on the Coal Microstructure: Experimental and Wettability Mathematical Model Discussion

Green biosurfactants are emerging as a promising area of research. However, there is a limited focus on the adsorption and wetting characteristics of biosurfactants on coal dust. This study explores the effects of sophorolipid (SL) biosurfactants on the microstructure and wettability of different coalification degree coal. The microstructure parameters of SL adsorbed on coal dust were measured using a surface tensiometer, contact angle analyzer, and particle size analyzer. The results indicate that SL has the lowest critical surface tension, leading to a 9.25° decrease in the contact angle for low-rank bituminous coal (YZ-LRBC). Furthermore, SL significantly altered the particle size distribution of lignite (NM-LC) and YZ-LRBC. The pore size structure of SL-infiltrated coal dust was quantified using a specific surface area analyzer, revealing a decrease in the specific surface area and an increase in the average pore size. The infrared analysis demonstrated that SL permeation significantly increased the percentage of hydrophilic functional groups (hydroxyl structures) while reducing the hydrophobic functional groups (aliphatic hydrocarbon and aromatic structure). Based on the measured microstructure parameters, a regression equation for contact angle was established: [contact angle (°)] = 73.800 - 0.860 × [D10 (nm)] + 4.280 × [specific surface area (m2/g)]. Notably, the characteristic particle size D10 had a significant negative effect on the contact angle, while the specific surface area had a significant positive effect. These findings provide a theoretical foundation for the application of biosurfactants in water injection to reduce dust and improve the wetting efficiency.

Enhancement of the wettability of a coal seam during water injection: effect and mechanism of surfactant concentrations above the CMC

This paper determines the optimal surfactant concentration for enhancing coal's wettability and explores the wetting mechanism at surfactant concentrations above the critical micelle concentration (CMC) during coal seam water injection. In this study, laboratory experiments and field tests were used to investigate the influence of monomeric surfactants and compound surfactants at various concentrations on coal's wettability. The results showed that when the surfactant solution concentration was greater than the CMC, the coal's wettability was significantly enhanced as the surfactant concentration increased. However, the coal's wettability did not monotonically increase with the concentration, and the maximum value was reached in the range of 0.5-3 wt.%. Increasing the surfactant adsorption density and changing the adsorption state on the coal surface were the essential reasons surfactants continued improving the coal's wettability at concentrations above the CMC. The Marangoni flow effect and changes in the viscosity of the surfactant solution with concentration were also important factors that affected the coal's wettability.

Experimental study of wetting effect of surfactant based on dynamic wetting process and impedance response of coal

Surfactant can improve the wettability of water to coal, which is beneficial to reduce the production of coal dust in coal seam water injection. Through the measurement and calculation of contact angle and its decay rate, the wettability differences of SDS (C₁₂H₂₅OSO₃Na), AES (C₁₄H₂₉O₅NaS), OP-10 (C₁₈H₃₀O₁₀), and JFC (RO(CH₂CH₂O)_nH) to anthracite were compared. In addition, the wetting modification effect and infiltration rate of anthracite by water, AES, and OP-10 were studied by infrared spectroscopy and complex impedance monitoring of coal pillar immersion process. The results show that when the concentration of surfactant is 0.1%, the contact angle decay time of OP-10 is very short, and the contact angle decay rate is as high as 19°/s. The decay rate can more obviously reflect the wettability difference of surfactants. And the wetting modification effect of OP-10 on anthracite is stronger than that of AES, and the peaks of oxygen-containing functional groups such as carboxyl and hydroxyl groups are stronger. Furthermore, the capillary force between OP-10 and anthracite is much larger than that of water, which shows the characteristics of fast water absorption and wide distribution in the infiltration experiment of columnar coal. The results of complex impedance measurement indicate that the impedance decay rate of coal is well correlated with capillary rise factor F_C, contact angle decay rate, and contact angle. It is hoped that the research results can provide help for coal seam water injection and dust prevention.

Experimental study on coal dust wettability strengthened by surface active ionic liquids

The water wettability of coal dust was very important for dust control when using water-based dust suppressant materials. The coal dust wettability strengthened by surface active ionic liquid was studied in this paper. The surface activity of ten ionic liquids with different anions Cl^-, Br^-, [BF₄]^-, [NTf₂]^- and cations [HOEtMIm]⁺, [C_nmim]⁺ (n = 4, 12, 14, 16) was studied by surface tension test. The water wettability of raw coal dust can be improved individually by adding ionic liquid to water or pre-treating coal dust by ionic liquids. The wettability of lignite was improved little, but that of bituminous coal and anthracite were improved much. The dual strengthened effects of ionic liquids on coal dust wettability were studied by the wetting results between ionic liquids solutions and ionic liquid-treated coal samples. The wettability of lignite can be strengthened under the combined action of [HOEtMIm][NTf₂] and [C₁₂MIm]Br, while other dual effects were not satisfactory. All ionic liquids combination had strengthened effects on the wettability of bituminous coal and anthracite, especially the [C₁₂MIm]Br treatment and [C₁₂MIm]Br solutions together had the best dual effects. The functional groups results indicated that the hydrophilic oxygen-containing functional groups in treated coal samples increased, the hydrophobic aliphatic hydrocarbon functional groups decreased and part of ionic liquids were adsorbed on the coal surface. These changes together enhanced the wettability of coal with high coalification degrees.

Simple Strategy Preparing Cyclodextrin Carboxylate as a Highly Effective Carrier for Bioactive Compounds

Many phytochemicals suffer from poor water dispersity and storage stability, which restrict their application within aqueous-based commercial products. β-Cyclodextrin (β-CD) is a water-dispersible molecule with a hydrophobic core that can encapsulate and protect non-polar substances. The functional attributes of β-CD can be further enhanced by chemical modification. In this study, a simple and effective dry-heating process was applied to fabricate succinic acid (SA)-modified β-CD (SACD) through esterification. SACD showed better encapsulation property than non-modified β-CD to guest molecules such as methyl orange (up to 1.41-folds of β-CD) and curcumin (with an encapsulation efficiency of up to 10 mg/g). Meanwhile, higher water solubility (up to 469.30 g per 100 g of H₂O) was achieved for SACD, indicating that a high dose of SACD could be applied in an aqueous food matrix. Such a simple strategy exhibiting low cytotoxicity shows great potential incorporating bioactive compounds into functional foods.

Experimental Study on the Wettability of Coal with Different Metamorphism Treated by Surfactants for Coal Dust Control

Wet dedusting is the main coal dust suppression technique in coal mines, and coal wettability is the main factor affecting dust suppression efficiency. To investigate the main factors affecting the coal wettability and improve it, the coal-water contact angle was used as an index to characterize the coal wettability, and the wettability of six coal samples with different metamorphic degree was studied by analyzing the relationship between the physicochemical properties and the contact angle. To improve the coal wettability, the nonionic surfactant alkyl polyglycoside (APG), anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS), and polymer surfactant polyacrylamide (PAM) were applied to the coal samples. The results show that SDBS is the most effective surfactant to improve the coal wettability, followed by APG, while the application of PAM would lead to more hydrophobic coal. It is also found that the coal wettability shows a high-low-high trend with the increase in the metamorphic degree. The wettability of long flame coal is the strongest and that of gas coal is the weakest. Moisture is the main hydrophilic factor of coal, while 1,4-dimethylbenzene is the main hydrophobic factor. The main factors affecting the treatment effect of APG, SDBS, and PAM on wettability are the aromatic methylbenzene, hydroxyl, and hydroxyl content of coal, respectively. Therefore, according to the content of hydroxyl in different coals, an SDBS solution can be prepared to improve the coal wettability. For coal with a low hydroxyl content, a higher concentration SDBS solution could be needed.