Flotation behavior of metallurgical coals from different seams under electrolytic process water

ABSTRACT

Various studies have reported that electrolytes present in the plant’s process water influence the coal flotation performance. However, coal fines, which are fed into the flotation circuit are from different coal seams, and their surface properties usually vary considerably. In this study, flotation experiments were conducted using coal fines from three different coal seams of the West Bokaro coalfield in plant’s process water to explore the extent of change in flotation response of each coal. Besides, flotation experiments using deionized water were parallelly examined for comparison. XRD, SEM, FTIR, BET, contact angle, wetting rate, and zeta potential measurements were performed to understand and compare the surface properties of three coals. The flotation results indicated that compared to deionized water, process water increased flotation yield, combustible recovery as well as ash recovery for all three coals at all examined collector dosages.

KEYWORDS:

• Coal flotation
• sem
• ftir
• contact angle
• wettability
• zeta potential