Coal cleaning by froth flotation

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:6006864

Han, C

A number of experiments were conducted to determine the flotation characteristics of Iowa coals in which various conditions were applied to study the effect of different parameters such as frother dosage, oily collectors, pyrite depressants, and various combinations of these reagents. Flotation tests were also conducted with Appalachian coals for comparison. Iowa coals did not respond as well to froth flotation as Appalachian coals. Although Iowa coal floated very flowly and incompletely with only a frother (methyl isobutyl carbinol or MIBC), it floated rapidly when a large dosage of an oily collector (No. 200 LLS fuel oil) was employed in addition. No. 1 fuel oil was not nearly as effective as a collector for this application. The order of addition of flotation reagents appeared very important for achieving a high recovery of Iowa coal. Appalachian coals floated rapidly with only a frother or an alkaline solution. A small amount of an oily collector increased the recovery of Appalachian coals significantly. The results of these flotation experiments showed that little mineral matter was removed when a high recovery was achieved. The use of ultrasonics did seem to improve mineral matter liberation. Bubble-particle attachment was studied from a theoretical view point. This study showed that the mechanism of attachment differs depending on the relative size of bubbles and particles. The study indicated that micro-bubbles could separate mineral matter from low rank coal more selectively than macro-bubbles could. A general kinetic model was proposed to represent the rate of flotation of coal. For two Appalachian coals, the model successfully represented the flotation kinetics of uniformly sized coal and for coal consisting of two sizes of particles. 115 references, 33 figures, 34 tables.

• Research Organization: Ames Lab., IA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-82
• OSTI ID: 6006864
• Report Number(s): IS-T-1091; ON: DE85005624
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
COAL
FLOTATION
PARTICLE SIZE
REAGENTS
PYRITE
REMOVAL
BUBBLES
CLEANING
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
KINETICS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
ULTRASONIC WAVES
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHALCOGENIDES
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
INFORMATION
IRON COMPOUNDS
IRON SULFIDES
MATERIALS
MINERALS
NUMERICAL DATA
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SIZE
SOUND WAVES
SULFIDE MINERALS
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
013000* - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Transport
Handling
& Storage