Abstract
Abstract. Combustion of coal has high sulphur content causes environmental pollution, damage
(corrosive) and shortens the life of industrial plant equipment. Combustion of has high sulphur
content produces Sulfur dioxide (SO2) which can disrupt humanlife, such as causing tightness in
the respiratory tract, causing acid rain and corrosion on plant equipment. So that coal can be
used as fuel then desulfurization process is carried out first. Desulfurization of coal is needed not
only to minimize environmental pollution caused by emissions of Sulphur dioxide during
combustion, but also to improve the quality of coal. Desulfurization of coal is a process of
reducing sulphur content from coal. The desulfurization process in this research uses a chemical
method with Hydrochloric acid (HCl) solvent. Coal that will be desulfurized is coal from flemming
seam produced by PT. Nusa Alam Lestari Site Sinamar, Dharmasraya Regency, West Sumatera
Province. Flemming seam has a thickness of up to 1,2 meters. This layer has calorific values
between 5100 – 5500 kcal/kg. This coal is lignite with an average sulphur content of 1,5 – 2,2%.
This coal is treated by modifying the concentration of Hydrochoric acid (HCl), which is 0,4 M, 0,6
M, 0,8 M, 1 M, and 1,2 M. After leaching the coal, the next process is to test sulphur content with
sulfur analyzer. Of all variations in the concentration of Hydrochloric acid (HCl), the optimum
concentration is obtained, HCl 0,8 M which can reduce sulphur levels to 0,59%.
Keywords: desulfurization, coal, sulphur, Hydrochloric acid, combustion.