Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
College/Unit
Statler College of Engineering and Mining Resources
Department/Program/Center
Mining Engineering
Abstract
A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of nine different frother types when used in a three-phase, continuously operating froth flotation system. The frothers included several that are commonly used in the industry (e.g., MIBC, 2EH, and F-1) as well as unique frother types (e.g., F-3). The tests were conducted in a 5-cm diameter laboratory flotation column that provided near plug-flow mixing conditions due to a length-to-diameter ratio of around 50:1. Test results indicate that F-1, MIBC, and MPC (in order of decreasing effectiveness) provided the weakest performance in terms of combustible recovery while F-2, MAC, and 2EH were the top three generating the highest separation efficiencies. When processing ultrafine coal, the ash content of the flotation concentrate ranged from 10% to 15% while recovering over 80% of the combustible material. F-3, F-4, and DIBC provided over 80% recovery of combustibles at the expense in the amount of hydraulic entrainment. The flotation performances were also closely examined in accordance with the fundamental properties of the nine tested frothers, and their correlations were addressed in detail.
Digital Commons Citation
Huang, Qingqing; Yang, Xinbo; and Honaker, Rick Q., "Evaluation of Frother Types for Improved Flotation Recovery and Selectivity" (2019). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 1559.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/1559
Source Citation
Huang, Q., Yang, X., & Honaker, R. Q. (2019). Evaluation of Frother Types for Improved Flotation Recovery and Selectivity. Minerals, 9(10), 590. https://doi.org/10.3390/min9100590
Comments
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This article received support from the WVU Libraries' Open Access Author Fund.