Gas dispersion characteristics of flotation reagents

Abstract

Gas dispersion is one of the key factors in the mineral flotation process articulated by many variables such as bubble size, gas hold-up, gas superficial velocity and bubble surface area flux (S-b). In this work, experiments were carried out on column flotation (5.08 cm in diameter and 180 cm height) with different types of reagents to evaluate the gas hold-up. The gas hold-up was measured using pressure difference technique. The parameters were optimized for enhanced gas hold-up for better flotation performance. The influence of operating parameters comprising different reagents' dosage/type and their mixture combination on gas hold-up was discussed in detail. Based on the experimental data, the dimensionless correlations were developed to predict the gas hold-up within the range of parameters studied. The correlations are found to be able to predict gas hold-up with acceptable accuracy. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.