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Title: DEVELOPMENT OF DEWATERING AIDS FOR MINERALS AND COAL FINES

Abstract

MCT has developed a suite of novel dewatering chemicals (or aids) that are designed to cause a decrease in the capillary pressures of the water trapped in a filter cake by (1) decreasing the surface tension of water, (2) increasing the contact angles of the particles to be dewatered, and (3) causing the particles to coagulate, all at the same time. The decrease in capillary pressure in turn causes an increase in the rate filtration, an increase in throughput, and a decrease in pressure drop requirement for filtration. The reagents are used frequently as blends of different chemicals in order to bring about the changes in all of the process variables noted above. The minerals and coal samples tested in the present work included copper sulfide, lead sulfide, zinc sulfide, kaolin clay, talc, and silica. The laboratory-scale test work included studies of reagent types, drying cycle times, cake thickness, slurry temperature, conditioning intensity and time, solid content, and reagent dosages. To better understand the mechanisms involved, fundamental studies were also conducted. These included the measurements of the contact angles of the particles to be dewatered (which are the measures of particle hydrophobicity) and the surface tensions of the filtrates producedmore » from dewatering tests. The results of the laboratory-scale filtration experiments showed that the use of the novel dewatering aids can reduce the moistures of the filter cake by 30 to 50% over what can be achieved using no dewatering aids. In many cases, such high levels of moisture reductions are sufficient to obviate the needs for thermal drying, which is costly and energy intensive. Furthermore, the use of the novel dewatering aids cause a substantial increase in the kinetics of dewatering, which in turn results in increased throughput. As a result of these technological advantages, the novel dewatering aids have been licensed to Nalco, which is one of the largest mining chemicals companies of the world. At least one mineral company is currently using the technology in full-scale plant operation, which has resulted in the shutdown of a thermal dryer.« less

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Minerals & Coal Technologies (US)
Sponsoring Org.:
(US)
OSTI Identifier:
835593
DOE Contract Number:  
FC26-01NT41053
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 1 Jul 2004
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT; COAL FINES; COPPER SULFIDES; DRYING; FILTRATION; KAOLIN; KINETICS; LEAD SULFIDES; MINING; MOISTURE; PRESSURE DROP; SHUTDOWN; SILICA; SURFACE TENSION; THICKNESS; WATER REMOVAL; ZINC SULFIDES

Citation Formats

Yoon, Roe-Hoam, Asmatulu, Ramazan, Yildirim, Ismail, Jansen, William, Zhang, Jinmig, Atkinson, Brad, and Havens, Jeff. DEVELOPMENT OF DEWATERING AIDS FOR MINERALS AND COAL FINES. United States: N. p., 2004. Web. doi:10.2172/835593.
Yoon, Roe-Hoam, Asmatulu, Ramazan, Yildirim, Ismail, Jansen, William, Zhang, Jinmig, Atkinson, Brad, & Havens, Jeff. DEVELOPMENT OF DEWATERING AIDS FOR MINERALS AND COAL FINES. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/835593
Yoon, Roe-Hoam, Asmatulu, Ramazan, Yildirim, Ismail, Jansen, William, Zhang, Jinmig, Atkinson, Brad, and Havens, Jeff. 2004. "DEVELOPMENT OF DEWATERING AIDS FOR MINERALS AND COAL FINES". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/835593. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/835593.
@article{osti_835593,
title = {DEVELOPMENT OF DEWATERING AIDS FOR MINERALS AND COAL FINES},
author = {Yoon, Roe-Hoam and Asmatulu, Ramazan and Yildirim, Ismail and Jansen, William and Zhang, Jinmig and Atkinson, Brad and Havens, Jeff},
abstractNote = {MCT has developed a suite of novel dewatering chemicals (or aids) that are designed to cause a decrease in the capillary pressures of the water trapped in a filter cake by (1) decreasing the surface tension of water, (2) increasing the contact angles of the particles to be dewatered, and (3) causing the particles to coagulate, all at the same time. The decrease in capillary pressure in turn causes an increase in the rate filtration, an increase in throughput, and a decrease in pressure drop requirement for filtration. The reagents are used frequently as blends of different chemicals in order to bring about the changes in all of the process variables noted above. The minerals and coal samples tested in the present work included copper sulfide, lead sulfide, zinc sulfide, kaolin clay, talc, and silica. The laboratory-scale test work included studies of reagent types, drying cycle times, cake thickness, slurry temperature, conditioning intensity and time, solid content, and reagent dosages. To better understand the mechanisms involved, fundamental studies were also conducted. These included the measurements of the contact angles of the particles to be dewatered (which are the measures of particle hydrophobicity) and the surface tensions of the filtrates produced from dewatering tests. The results of the laboratory-scale filtration experiments showed that the use of the novel dewatering aids can reduce the moistures of the filter cake by 30 to 50% over what can be achieved using no dewatering aids. In many cases, such high levels of moisture reductions are sufficient to obviate the needs for thermal drying, which is costly and energy intensive. Furthermore, the use of the novel dewatering aids cause a substantial increase in the kinetics of dewatering, which in turn results in increased throughput. As a result of these technological advantages, the novel dewatering aids have been licensed to Nalco, which is one of the largest mining chemicals companies of the world. At least one mineral company is currently using the technology in full-scale plant operation, which has resulted in the shutdown of a thermal dryer.},
doi = {10.2172/835593},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/835593}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2004},
month = {Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2004}
}