Interaction mechanism between carboxylmethyl cellulose and iron ore concentrates in iron ore agglomeration

Carboxylmethyl cellulose(CMC) has become a commercial organic binder in agglomeration of iron ore concentrates. The relative molecular mass and degree of substitution(DS) of CMC have a large impact on its binding performance. The interaction mechanism between CMC and iron ore particles was analyzed through Zeta potential measurements, adsorption measurements and infrared spectra. The results show that the interaction is chemical adsorption-oriented and the CMC's adsorption performance is related to the properties of CMC as well as the type of iron oxides. CMC has a greater affinity to Fe2O3 than Fe3O4, and CMC with higher relative molecular mass shows a higher adsorption isotherm. Pelletization of practical iron ore concentrates added with CMC further illustrates that CMC with higher relative molecular mass or DS exhibits a better binding performance, which is consistent with the results of adsorption tests.

Flotation performance and adsorption mechanism of styrene phosphonic acid as a collector to synthetic(Ce,La)2O3

The flotation performances of styrene phosphonic acid（SPA） to synthetic（Ce,La）2O3（REO）, calcium fluorite（CaF2） and fluorapatite（Ca5F（PO4）3） were investigated by flotation tests, flotation of synthetic mixed mineral, the surface adsorption capacity and the polarizing microscopy to solve the flotation separation problem of rare earth oxides from roasted concentrate. The flotation test results indicated that compared with CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3, SPA exhibited superior collecting performance to direct flotation recovery of REO and floated out above 90% REO at pH 3–6. However, the collecting ability of SPA to CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3 was extremely weak and the highest recovery was only 20% at pH 2–11. The flotation of synthetic mixed mineral showed that SPA was a good collector reagent for flotation of synthetic REO at pH 5, so REO, CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3 could be separated from roasted concentrate by using SPA as a collector. The surface adsorption capacity tests and polarizing microscopy results confirmed that SPA was adsorbed on REO surface, while CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3 were not. The adsorption mechanism of SPA to synthetic REO was studied by solution chemistry analysis of collector, the ζ-potential tests, infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS） analyses. The results indicated that SPA was physically adsorbed onto REO surface, which exhibited excellent flotation selectivity to REO against CaF2 and Ca5F（PO4）3.

Membrane fouling controlled by coagulation/adsorption during direct sewage membrane filtration(DSMF) for organic matter concentration

Unlike the role of the membrane in a membrane bioreactor, which is designed to replace a sediment tank, direct sewage membrane filtration（DSMF）, with the goal of concentrating organic matters, is proposed as a pretreatment process in a novel sewage treatment concept. The concept of membrane-based pretreatment is proposed to divide raw sewage into a concentrated part retaining most organics and a filtered part with less pollutant remaining, so that energy recovery and water reuse, respectively, could be realized by post-treatment. A pilot-scale experiment was carried out to verify the feasibility of coagulant/adsorbent addition for membrane fouling control, which has been the main issue during this DSMF process. The results showed that continuous coagulant addition successfully slowed down the increase in filtration resistance, with the resistance maintained below 1.0 × 1013m^（-1） in the first 70 hr before a jump occurred. Furthermore,the adsorbent addition contributed to retarding the occurrence of the filtration resistance jump, achieving simultaneous fouling control and chemical oxygen demand（COD）concentration improvement. The final concentrated COD amounted to 7500 mg/L after 6 days of operation.