Influence of surface roughness on flotation kinetics of quartz

Surface roughness of quartz particles was determined by measuring the specific surface area of particles.The wettability characteristics of particles were determined by measuring the flotation rate using a laboratory flotation cell.Experimental results show that the rod mill product has higher roughness than the ball mill product.For the particles with larger surface roughness,the flotation kinetics constant is also higher.Finally,empirical relationships between surface roughness(r) and the flotation kinetics constant(k) of quartz particles as k=A+Br+Cr0.5lnr+D/lnr+E/r and k=A+Br are presented,in which A,B,C,D and E are constants related to experimental conditions and mineralogical properties of mineral.

Flotation kinetics performance of different coal size fractions with nanobubbles

The flotation kinetics of different size fractions of conventional and nanobubble(NB) flotation were compared to investigate the effect of NBs on the flotation performance of various coal particle sizes. Six flotation kinetics models were selected to fit the flotation data, and NBs were observed on a hydrophobic surface under hydrodynamic cavitation by atomic force microscope scanning. Flotation results indicated that the best flotation performance of size fraction at-0.125+0.074 mm can be obtained either in conventional or NB flotation. NBs increase the combustible recovery of almost all the size fractions, but they increase the product ash content of-0.25+0.074 mm and reduce the product ash content of-0.045 mm at the same time. The first-order models can be used to fit the flotation data in conventional and NB flotation, and the classical first-order model is the most suitable one. NBs considerably enhance flotation rate on coarse size fraction(-0.5+0.25 mm) but decrease the flotation rate of the medium size(-0.25+0.074 mm). The improvement of flotation speed on fine coal particles(-0.074 mm) is probably the reason for the improved performance of raw sample flotation.

Nanobubble generation and its applications in froth flotation(partⅢ):specially designed laboratory scale column flotation of phosphate

Froth flotation is used widely for upgrading raw phosphate.The flotation recovery of coarse phosphate(-1.18+0.425 mm) is much lower than that achieved on the-0.425+0.15 mm size fraction.Enhanced recovery of coarse phosphate particles is of great economic and environmental importance for phosphate industry.In this investigation,four different phosphate samples were aquired,characterized and tested in a specially designed laboratory-scale flotation column.Significant recovery improvement of coarse phosphate flotation was achieved using cavitation-generated nanobubble though its effects differ among the four testing phosphate samples.The laboratory-scale flotation column test results indicate that nanobubble increased P_2O_5 recovery by up to 10%～30%for a given Acid Insoluble(A.I.) rejection,depending on the characteristic of phosphate samples.The improvement effect of nanobubble on the hard-to-float particles was more significant than that on easy-to-float particles,especially at lower collector dosages.Nanobubbles reduced the collector dosage by 1/3 to 1/2.Nanobubbles almost doubled the coarse phosphate flotation rate constant and increased the flotation selectivity index by up to 25%.

Nanobubble generation and its applications in froth flotation(part IV):mechanical cells and specially designed column flotation of coal

Coal is the world's most abundant fossil fuel.Coal froth flotation is a widely used cleaning process to separate coal from mineral impurities.Flotation of coarse coal particles,ultrafine coal particles and oxidized coal particles is well known to be difficult and complex.In this paper,the nanobubbles' effects on the flotation of the varying particle size,particle density and floatability coal samples were evaluated using a bank of pilot scale flotation cells,a laboratory scale and a pilot scale specially designed flotation column.The parameters evaluated during this study include the flow rate ratio between the nanobubble generator and the conventional size bubble generator,the superficial air velocity,collector dosage,frother concentration,flotation feed rate,feed solids concentration,feed particle size,and the superficial wash water flow rate,etc.The results show that the use of nanobubbles in a bank of mechanical cells flotation and column flotation increased the flotation recovery by 8%～27% at a given product grade.Nanobubbles increased the flotation rate constants of 600～355,355～180,180～75,and 75～0 microns size coal particles by 98.0%,98.4%,50.0% and 41.6%,respectively.The separation selectivity index was increased by up to 34%,depending on the flotation feed characteristics and the flotation conditions.