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The famous "Greenwood breaker," in the heart of Pennsylvania's historic anthracite coal region, is back in operation.

The new breaker is at the heart of the coal mining operations of Lehigh Coal & Navigation, the country's oldest coal producer and the owner of 8,000 acres of the world's finest anthracite.

The newly renovated breaker is one of the most efficient and modern preparation plants for processing coal in the anthracite industry.

In its day, when the coal industry was booming during the early 20th century, the original LCN breaker in Coaldale, PA was the centerpiece of the coal region and was cited as the "million dollar coal region skyscraper."

The new breaker will carry that pre-eminent role into the 21st Century.

Strictly speaking, the breaker is no longer a breaker, but more of a processing plant, better engineered to meet the demands of today's energy markets. While previous generations were breaking coal in sizes up to six inches, the demand today is for processed coal less than three inches and as fine as 35 mesh which is almost a powder.

Thanks to new technology at the breaker such as a belt press, the minus 100 mesh coal can be used to produce a product that is valuable to the co-generation of electricity.

Raw coal will still be mined and broken in the field. Then, after screening in the field, the coal will be moved to the top of the breaker and down through a process of heavy media washing operations to separate the coal from rock, then to a series of screens that separate it into 8 industry-standard sizes from Stove (2-7/16") to Buckwheat #5 (3/64").

The finer material, carried by water, moves to a belt press where the water is extracted for recycling and the coal is pressed into cakes for use in co-generation.

Just as important as the advancements in processing technology are the improvements with positive environmental impact. Significantly, all water used for processing is re-used in the system and not discharged.

The processing improvements incorporated into the new Greenwood breaker are:
• The new breaker is used exclusively for the processing of coal less
than 2-7/16" in size rather than breaking raw coal in larger sizes.
• The processing can be modified to produce coal in sizes in response
to market demand.
• Heavy media for washing (magnetite) is reclaimed and reused
repeatedly.
• Enhanced control of the washing process to reduce ash content for
higher quality.
• The water for processing passes through a belt press which extracts
silt that is formed into cakes for sale and use for energy production.
• 100% of the water is recovered, decanted, and goes back into the
system for re-use.
• No waste water is discharged.

When in full operation, LCN's new Greenwood breaker will be capable of processing 300 tons of material per hour with eight men working two ten-hour shifts.

LCN will also continue to process the coal silt on its holdings that had been unused, discarded and ignored as a viable product by previous generations.

Thanks to new and better technology like the new Greenwood breaker, this silt or culm, once considered refuse, can now be harvested and processed as a valuable resource from silt banks and other bank materials on the property.

LCN also has uncovered unexposed coal veins hidden under the silt piles that will lead to future raw coal operations.

LCN maintains a quality assurance program with skilled technicians in an on-site laboratory to assure that the anthracite sent to market measures up to the high carbon, low ash content that is characteristic of Lehigh coal, the best anthracite in the world.