Scale-Up in Froth Flotation: a State-Of-The-Art Review
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Scale-up in froth flotation: A state-of-the-art review Diego Mesa∗, Pablo R. Brito-Parada Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom Abstract Froth flotation has been one of the most important and widely used methods to concentrate minerals since its introduction over a hundred years ago. Over the last few decades, in order to process more mineral while reducing capital costs, flotation equipment has become exponentially larger. The increase in tank volume, however, has brought new challenges in the operation and design of industrial flotation tanks. This review analyses the literature on flotation tank scale-up for the first time, contrasting several techniques and approaches used in both historical and state-of- the-art research. The study of flotation scale-up is crucial for the optimisation of industrial plant performance and the maximisation of laboratory-scale research impact. While important advances in our understanding of flotation have been achieved, large flotation tank design and scale-up has, to a large extent, remained in-house know-how of manufacturing companies. This review of the literature relevant to flotation tank scale-up has resulted in a new classification, dividing the scale-up literature into two main areas of study, namely \Kinetic scale-up" and \Machine design scale-up". This review indicates that current scale-up rules governing the design of flotation tanks focus mainly on pulp zone kinetic parameters and neglect the effects on the froth zone, despite the importance of froth stability and mobility in determining flotation performance. Froth stability and mobility are closely linked to the distance the froth needs to travel, which increases with tank diameter. Although including internal elements, such as launders and crowders, has been the industrial solution for enhancing froth transport and recovery in larger tanks, the design and scale-up of these elements have not been thoroughly studied. Gaps in our knowledge of flotation are discussed in the context of addressing the scale-up problem, considering froth transport and froth stability. Addressing these gaps will pave the way for the design and operation of large flotation tanks of enhanced performance. Keywords: Froth flotation, scale-up, kinetics, flotation tank, design 1. Introduction 20 mineral suspension in an aqueous media, called the pulp. Chemical reagents, called collectors, are added to the pulp Froth flotation was patented in 1905 for the concentra- in order to selectively enhance the hydrophobicity of the tion of ores (Sulman et al., 1905). It is now the most im- valuable minerals. These hydrophobic particles can attach portant mineral processing method in the mining industry, to the gas bubbles and rise to form a froth layer, which because of its technical versatility and cost-effectiveness overflows as the mineral-rich concentrate. (Wills & Finch, 2016). Flotation is also used in other The throughput treated at industrial processing plants industries, such as oil sands concentration (Rao & Liu, has increased in the recent decades because of lower grades 2013), ionic flotation (Sebba, 1959; Polat & Erdogan, 2007), and higher mining capacities (Prior et al., 2012). Instead algae separation (Chen et al., 1998; Laamanen et al., 2016), of the amount of cells and banks in the processing plant 10 paper deinking (Chaiarrekij et al., 2000; Vashisth et al., 30 being increased, flotation equipment has become larger in 2011), plastic recycling (Takoungsakdakun & Pongstabodee, order to process more mineral (Rao, 2004). Tank volume 2007; Wang et al., 2015; Negari et al., 2018) and wa- has increased a thousandfold in the span of a century, ter treatment (Rubio & Smith, 2002; Saththasivam et al., as can be seen in Figure 1 (after that in Wills & Finch 2016). (2016)). This increase in tank size has allowed the utilisa- Froth flotation works on the basis of surface chem- tion of economies of scale, by reducing the overall capital istry; fine mineral particles are separated according to and operating costs (Murphy, 2012). However, these lar- their hydrophobicity. This separation process disperses ger and more complex tanks have brought new challenges small bubbles of gas, generally air, inside a flotation tank, in performance, design and operation (Tabosa et al., 2016) also referred to as flotation cell. The tank contains a in terms of pulp hydrodynamics and froth transport. 40 When confronted with the problem of processing a lar- ∗Corresponding author ger throughput, other industries have taken a different Email address: [email protected] (Diego Mesa) approach, called process intensification. Process intensi- Preprint submitted to Separation and Purification Technology 17th July 2018 1000 80 with designs that apply process intensification principles will no doubt play an important role in the future of min- eral separations, it is unlikely that new flotation tanks in 3 100 processing plants will be considerably smaller in the near future. Therefore, scale-up studies are, and will, remain critical for the design of large flotation equipment. Scale- 10 up studies are also relevant for the design of retrofits, that can be installed in existing flotation tanks to enhance their performance. These studies require a better understand- 1 Flotation tank volume, m ing of the hydrodynamics phenomena at different scales 90 and their impact on performance, for both the pulp and froth zones in flotation tanks. 0.1 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 The purpose of this review of scale-up in froth flotation Year is twofold: (i) to highlight and classify the studies that have been conducted on flotation scale-up, defining two Figure 1: Trend in flotation tank size over the last century, referring to the maximum tank volume commercially available. Data from sub-areas of study, namely \kinetic scale-up" and \design Dreyer (1976); Lynch et al. (2007); Wills & Finch (2016); Lelinski scale-up", and (ii) to highlight the areas that require fur- et al. (2017). Note that the y-axis is on logarithmic scale. ther research and better understanding for a more effective scale-up of flotation tanks. This is the first review to offer an in-depth analysis fication is defined in Chemical Engineering as the study 100 and critique of flotation scale-up studies, including exper- and design of ever smaller reactors. These small reactors imental studies and scale-up procedures suggested in the operate by enhancing transport and processing rates, lead- literature. The analysis of the literature shows that while ing to a better control of the kinetics, improving energy the scale-up process for the pulp zone in flotation tanks efficiency and reducing capital cost (Reay et al., 2008a). has been extensively studied, insufficient attention as so Process intensification has been applied in the design of far been paid to the scale-up process related to froth mo- a broad range of equipment, including heat exchangers, bility and stability. It is also highlighted that the liter- 50 reactors and separators (Ramshaw & Arkley, 1983; Reay ature available on the design of different inserts such as et al., 2008c). In extractive metallurgy, a toroidal flu- launders and froth crowders is scarce . The lack of fun- idised bed used for ore roasting and drying, denominated damental understanding of the effect of those inserts on The Torbed, was developed following the principles of pro- 110 flotation performance is discussed, which is essential for cess intensification (Groszek, 1990; Shu et al., 2000; Wang effective scale-up. et al., 2017). A recent review of the use of process intensification in solids handling (Wang et al., 2017) included a section 2. Flotation equipment on particle separations and froth flotation. Some examples The four main functions of a flotation tank are: (i) in- mentioned are the Air-Sparged Hydrocyclone (ASH), which troducing air bubbles into the pulp, (ii) providing an envir- 60 achieved recoveries of 85-93% of pyrite with a mean resid- onment that increases the probability of collision between ence time of 1 second (Van Deventer et al., 1988), and the those bubbles and the particles in the slurry, (iii) maintain- Jameson Cell, which enhances the mixing intensity, max- ing a stable pulp-froth interface and (iv) providing suffi- imising the particle-bubble contact probability and achiev- cient froth removal capacity (Degner, 1988; Gupta & Yan, ing high recoveries with a residence time of 5-10 s (Clayton 2006). Flotation equipment, regardless of its scale, can et al., 1991; Glencore Technology, 2016). Other examples 120 be classified into two main types: mechanical and pneu- include the HydroFloat cell, which is an aerated fluidised- matic cells, of which the former is the most widely used in bed that improves the recovery of coarse particles with low industry. residence times, reducing the contact zone (Eriez, 2015; Mechanical cells (Figure 2) are fitted with an impeller Miller et al., 2016), as well as several studies considering in order to generate a highly turbulent region, which keeps 70 microbubble generation for flotation (Rodrigues & Rubio, particles in suspension, generates and disperses bubbles, 2007; Parmar & Majumder, 2013), including the cyclone- and promotes bubble-particle collision (Deglon, 2005; Tabosa static microbubble column of Cao et al. (2009) and Zhang et al., 2016). Mechanical cells can be sub-classified by their et al. (2013), which showed higher recoveries than a com- air injection system into self-aerated and forced-air cells mon bench-cell. (Wills & Finch, 2016). Self-aerated cells use the negative However, despite being introduced more than two dec- 130 pressure of the vortex created through agitation to induce ades ago, process intensification has been adopted slowly air into the pulp. On the other hand, forced-air or super- at an industrial scale (Reay et al., 2008b). In minerals pro- charged cells are supplied with air from an external and cessing, and particularly in froth flotation, process intensi- controlled source.