Downcomer modification in the Jameson cell and its effects on coarse particle flotation

ABSTRACT

Jameson cell is a flotation device that has unique characteristics for fine grained particles, and thus, it has more than three hundred applications in worldwide. On the contrary, the flotation performance of the cell decreases by coarser feeding, which limits the application of the Jameson cell. It has been figured out that the main reason for the performance decrease for coarse particle is turbulence which occurs at the outlet of the downcomer in the Jameson cell. Therefore, the aim of this study was to prevent the performance decrease in the Jameson cell by modifying the downcomer which was implemented by taking into account the fluid mechanics law and mathematical modelling. The modified downcomer, which can be called as diffuser, can provide better aggregate stability and less turbulence at the end of the downcomer. Thus, theoretically the better performance was obtained by the use of the new form of downcomer. In addition, a series of experiments were carried out to verify the success of the modified downcomer. According to the results, velocity gradient (G) decreased to 640 s⁻¹ from 671 s⁻¹ by using the modified downcomer, and the maximum floatable particle size increased to 255 µm from 225 µm.

KEYWORDS:

• Coarse particle
• downcomer modification
• Jameson cell
• turbulence

Acknowledgement

The authors are also thankful to Laurate Prof. Dr. Graeme J. Jameson for his help for designing the laboratory-scale Jameson cell which is the basic device and source of inspiration of our new design.