Advances in dewatering and drying in mineral processing

Abstract

In mineral processing, dewatering and drying are critical aspects from the technical and economical viewpoints. These operations should be considered carefully to achieve optimal water/moisture removal with minimal energy consumption. Various mineral dewatering and drying technologies have been proposed and numerous studies on their operations/performances have been reported. The existing dewatering and drying units were generally designed empirically based on conventional technologies. Meanwhile, information on recent developments and guidelines for efficient and sustainable design of dewatering and drying units are widely dispersed creating difficulties to harness important new knowledge. This article is prepared with the main objective of providing a concise yet comprehensive overview of the progress in mineral dewatering and drying with special focus on technologies in mineral dewatering and drying developed over the last decade. Furthermore, a brief discussion of future research needs and opportunities is included from the industrial perspective.

Keywords:

• Dewatering
• drying
• emerging technologies
• mineral processing
• research opportunities

Acknowledgments

The second authors (J.C.K.) gratefully acknowledge the facility and financial support from the Yayasan Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (YUTP) through YUTP Fundamental Research Grant (YUTP-FRG) no 015LC0-214. The third (A.P.S.) author gratefully acknowledges funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Canada (NSERC-RGPIN-2015-03945).

Author contributions

Conceptualization, J.C.K., A.P.S. and A.S.M.; literature data curation, B.A.C. and J.C.K.; writing—original draft preparation, B.A.C., J.C.K., and A.P.S.; writing—review and editing, J.C.K., A.P.S. and. A.S.M.; visualization, J.C.K.; supervision, J.C.K., A.P.S. and A.S.M.; project administration, J.C.K. and A.P.S.; funding acquisition, J.C.K. and A.P.S.

Disclosure of interest statement

All authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; Yayasan UTP.