Characterization of Flocs in Dewatering of Coal Plant Tailings

Flocculation is a widely used method for dewatering fine coal tailings. Flocs must resist to the shear stresses during the following processes such as flotation, cyclone separation, and pumping. Therefore, the strength of the flocs must be considered during flocculation. In this study, the fine coal tailings were dewatered with an anionic flocculant SNF-923 at various dosages, and the floc size of the coal tailings was characterized using a laser diffraction particle size analyzer with respect to time in order to determine the change in the floc size and hence the floc strength. The results of this study clearly indicated that the determination of the floc size with a laser particle size analyzer could be a simple and good method to observe the flocculation efficiency in terms of the floc strength

Effect of conventional and microwave thermal treatments on floatability of low- and high-rank lignites

Thermal treatment is one of the well-known methods used before froth flotation to remove the polar groups from coal surfaces to make them more hydrophobic. In this study, the effect of conventional and microwave thermal treatments on the wettability of low and high-rank lignite was investigated using flotation experiments, zeta potential, and bubble-particle attachment time measurements, as well as hydrophilicity index analyses. The results showed that both of the thermal treatments increased hydrophobicity, and therefore floatability of the coal samples. The optimum results were achieved with conventional and microwave thermal treatment for the low and high-rank coals, respectively

Enhancement of galena-potassium ethyl xanthate flotation system by low power ultrasound

The objective of this study is to investigate the improvement possibilities of the floatability of galena with ultrasonic application in the presence of potassium ethyl xanthate (KEX). For this purpose, micro-flotation experiments were carried out in addition to surface chemistry studies including zeta potential, contact angle, and bubble-particle attachment time measurements at various ultrasonic power levels and conditioning time. The results showed that, the maximum micro-flotation recovery of 77.5% was obtained with 30 W ultrasound power and 2 min conditioning time. In addition, more negative zeta potential values were obtained with ultrasound as well as higher contact angle and lower bubble-particle attachment time, which indicated the increased hydrophobicity of galena with ultrasound

A novel technique to investigate the bubble coalescence in the presence of surfactant (MIBC) and electrolytes (NaCl and CaCl2)

An efficiency of flotation process is strongly dependent upon the collecting ability of air bubbles. On the other hand, the liquid film formed between two fully or partially mobile air/liquid interfaces being in contact has low stability, which leads to fast liquid drainage. Therefore, when they approach to each other, they tend to coalescence. Therefore, bubble coalescence is usually controlled with frothers in flotation process. Meanwhile, it is known that dissolved ions inhibit bubble coalescence. In this study, the bubble coalescence in the presence of MIBC was determined using a novel technique with a modified bubble-particle attachment timer. Additionally, the effect of NaCl and CaCl2 on bubble behavior was investigated along with surface tension and bubble coalescence time aspects. As a result of study, it is seen that the bubble coalescence time can be successfully determined with a bubble-bubble coalescence timer