Flotation rate and residence time distribution in continuous coal froth flotation circuits and an evaluation of reagents and circuit variations for pyritic sulfur removal

Thesis/Dissertation · Sat Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6297353

Arnold, B J

This thesis gives the results of research conducted on several aspects of coal froth flotation. The effect of operating variables on the residence time distribution in coal froth flotation cells is discussed, and a model of the residence time distribution is presented for use with flotation rate models in scaling up from laboratory to plant scale. Flotation rate models are also investigated in detail for continuous coal froth flotation circuits. Changes in operating variables were found to affect the mean residence time in cells, but they did not have much effect on the mixing behavior. The use of a time lag was found to be an important part of rate models for continuous froth flotation cells. An important aspect of the use of such rate and residence time equations is their application to the flotation of gangue constituents, which often enter the froth by water carry-over in addition to natural flotation or flotation as slime coatings. As such, water carry-over is also investigated in this thesis for the laboratory and the plant and for both ash-forming minerals and pyrite. Maintaining a constant froth factor, the percentage of froth above the weir, in both laboratory and plant tests is believed to be a critical factor in predicting plant results using a kinetic factor ratio documented in the literature. Removing the pyrite and ash-forming minerals from coal that may be recovered by the water carry-over or other mechanisms is an important goal in coal froth flotation. This thesis also contains the results of tests with pyrite depressants and circuit variations for removal of pyritic sulfur.

• Research Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6297353
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010300* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Preparation-- (1987-)
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COAL
COAL PREPARATION
COAL PREPARATION PLANTS
CONTROL
DEASHING
DESULFURIZATION
DISTRIBUTION
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUATIONS
FLOTATION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
IRON COMPOUNDS
IRON SULFIDES
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MINERALS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROCESS CONTROL
PYRITE
REMOVAL
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SULFIDE MINERALS
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
TIME DELAY
TIME DEPENDENCE
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
WATER