Premium
Comparison of Internal and External Mixer Spargers in a Laboratory De‐inking Flotation Column
Author(s) -
Hardie C. A.,
Gomez C. O.,
Finch J. A.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450820311
Subject(s) - sparging , bubble , porosity , materials science , air sparging , volumetric flow rate , environmental science , chromatography , composite material , mechanics , chemistry , physics , contamination , biology , environmental remediation , ecology
Column flotation has been introduced for waste paper de‐inking to take advantage of low capital cost and excellent separation performance. Bubble generation employs a variety of systems, broadly divided into two types: internal and external. An external in‐line static mixer sparger was tested against an internal porous stainless steel sparger. They were compared in an industrial de‐inking facility using a 10 cm diameter column. Operating conditions were defined and the effect of gas rate, retention time, wash water rate, and froth height on de‐inking was investigated. Both spargers gave similar ink recovery and fiber loss as a function of bubble surface area flux. However, the static mixer gave stable operation while the porous sparger showed evidence of plugging over a 6h test. Combined with some ability to control bubble size, overall the in‐line static mixer gave superior performance.