Methodsof increasing flotation rate
AssigneeMineral and Coal Technologies, Inc.
InventorRoe-Hoan Yoon
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Abstract
Methods of increasing the rate of separating hydrophobic and hydrophilic particles by flotation have been developed. They are based on using appropriate reagents to enhance the hydrophobicity of the particles to be floated, so that they can be more readily collected by the air bubbles used in flotation. The hydrophobicity-enhancing reagents include low HLB surfactants, naturally occurring lipids, modified lipids, and hydrophobic polymers. These methods can greatly increase the rate of flotation for the particles that are usually difficult to float, such as ultrafine particles, coarse particles, middlings, and the particles that do not readily float in the water containing large amounts of ions derived from the particles. In addition, new collectos for the flotation of phosphate minerals are disclosed.
Claims13
A process of separating hydrophobic and hydrophilic particles dispersed in an aqueous slurry by collecting the hydrophobic particles on the surface of air bubbles, which comprises the steps of
- i) adding a hydrophobicity-enhancing reagent or mixtures of the said hydrophobicity-enhancing reagents to the said aqueous slurry,
- ii) agitating the said aqueous slurry to allow for the said hydrophobicity-enhancing reagent(s) to adsorb on the surface of the said hydrophobic particles so that their hydrophobicity is substantially enhanced,
- iii) introducing air bubbles to the said aqueous slurry so that the said hydrophobic particles, whose hydrophobicity has now been greatly enhanced, can be more readily collected by the said air bubbles,
- iv) allowing the bubble-particle aggregates to rise to the surface of the said aqueous slurry to be separated from the said hydrophilic particles in the aqueous slurry, and
- thereby increasing the flotation rate at which the said hydrophilic and hydrophobic particles are separated from each other.
A process of rendering phosphate minerals hydrophobic with tridecyl-dihydrogen phosphate and other phosphate esters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.