Micro-agglomerate flotation for deep cleaning of coal. Final report

The development of practical technologies for the deep cleaning of coal has been seriously hampered by the problems of carrying out efficient coal/mineral separations at the very fine sizes (often finer than 10 {micro}m) needed to achieve adequate liberation of the mineral matter from the coal matrix. In this investigation a hybrid process--Micro-agglomerate flotation--which is a combination of oil-agglomeration and froth flotation was studied. The basic concept is to use small quantities of oil to promote the formation of dense micro-agglomerates with minimal entrapment of water and mineral particles and to use froth flotation to separate these micro-agglomerates from the water/dispersed-mineral phase. Since the floating units will be relatively large agglomerates (30--50 {micro}m in size) rather than fine coal particles (1--10 {micro}m) the problems of froth overload and water/mineral carryover should be significantly alleviated. There are, however, complications. The process involves at least five phases: two or more solids (coal and mineral), two liquids (oil and water) and one gas (air). It is demonstrated in this study that the process is very sensitive to fluctuations in operating parameters. It is necessary to maintain precise control over the chemistry of the liquid phases as well as the agitation conditions in order to promote selectivity. Both kinetics as well as thermodynamic factors play a critical role in determining overall system response