Flotation kinetics of easy-to-float fine coal

ABSTRACT

Six flotation kinetics models were applied to fit the flotation kinetics results of easy-to-float fine coal. It was found that, except for the second-order kinetic model, the rest models are well suited for fitting the experimental data. The rate constant decreased as flotation time increased, indicating that the particle floatability in the pulp decreased. However, only a slight decrease in the rate constant was observed within 100 s, indicating that the coal samples have good floatability in general. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results show that the small proportion of hydrophilic oxygen-containing groups is responsible for the good floatability and fast flotation kinetics.

KEYWORDS:

• Coal
• easy-to-float
• flotation
• kinetics
• XPS

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (2017XKZD04) for which the authors express their appreciation.

Declaration of inerest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.