Method and composition for suppressing coal dust

1. A method of suppressing dust from coal, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a manganese-containing compound that is an organometallic compound containing an organo group and at least one manganese ion or atom;

providing a dust-suppressing liquid selected from the group consisting of surfactants, polymer dispersions, polymer solutions, and mixture thereof;

combining the manganese-containing compound with the dust-suppressing liquid to form a mixture; and

contacting the mixture of manganese-containing compound and dust-suppressing liquid with coal;

wherein the mixture is contacted with the coal in an amount effective to suppress the generation of dust from the coal.

2. The method as described in claim 1 , wherein the organo group of the organometallic compound is selected from the group consisting of alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, anhydrides, sulfonates, phosphonates, chelates, phenates, crown ethers, naphthenates, carboxylic acids, amides, acetyl acetonates and mixtures thereof.

3. The method described in claim 1 , wherein the organometallic compound comprises methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl.

4. The method described in claim 1 , wherein the manganese-containing compound is selected from the following group: cyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, dimethylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, trimethylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, tetramethylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, pentamethylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, ethylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, diethylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, propylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, isopropylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, tert-butylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, octylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, dodecylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, ethylmethylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl, indenyl manganese tricarbonyl, including mixtures of two or more such compounds.

5. The method as described in claim 1 , wherein the manganese-containing compound comprises about 20 ppm by weight of the coal.

6. The method as described in claim 1 , wherein the manganese-containing compound comprises about 5 to 100 ppm by weight of the coal.

7. The method as described in claim 1 , wherein the manganese-containing compound comprises about 1 to 500 ppm by weight of the coal.

8. The method as described in claim 1 , wherein the manganese-containing compound is a mononuclear metal compound.

9. The method as described in claim 1 , wherein the manganese-containing compound comprises clusters of about two to no more than about fifty metal atoms.

10. The method as described in claim 1 , further wherein the mixture is contacted with the coal in an amount effective to improve combustion of the coal.

11. The method described in claim 1 , further wherein the manganese-containing compound comprises at least one non-volatile, low cluster size (1-3 metal atoms) manganese compound selected from the group consisting of bis-cyclopentadienyl manganese, bis-methyl cyclopentadienyl manganese, manganese naphthenate, and manganese II citrate.

12. The method described in claim 1 , further wherein the manganese-containing compound comprises non-volatile, low cluster manganese compounds embedded in polymeric and/or oligomeric organic matrices.

13. A method of suppressing dust from coal, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a mixture of a manganese-containing compound that is an organometallic compound containing an organo group and at least one manganese ion or atom and a dust-suppressing liquid selected from the group consisting of surfactants, polymer dispersions, polymer solutions, and mixtures thereof; and

contacting the mixture of manganese-containing compound and dust-suppressing liquid with coal;

wherein the mixture is contacted with the coal in an amount effective to suppress the generation of dust from the coal.