Development And Evaluation Of Coal-Dust Water Flocculant Using Chitosan

Coal-fired power plants use coal as the main raw material, and when a coal is moved, a dust generation and spontaneous ignition of coal occur. To prevent this, water is sprayed. As a result, wastewater called "coal-dust water" flows out of coal dust and water mixed together, causing environmental pollution. In this study, in order to solve this problem, we developed a natural flocculant that can purify water by aggregating fine dust using chitosan and tried to prove its applicability. It was found that the optimum flocculation concentration was 4 ppm by adding various concentrations of flocculant to the coal-dust water, and it was confirmed that the developed material had very good coal-dust flocculation capacity through permeability and coal-dust removal efficiency. In addition, the cytotoxicity of the flocculant was evaluated through the MTT assay and it was found that there is no toxicity at all. We believe that the flocculant developed in this study can effectively adsorb coal-dust without affecting human and natural ecosystems.