Effect of energy consumption on dispersion and recovery of coal slimes in a mechanical flotation cell

ABSTRACT

Dispersion characteristics and flotation recovery of different size coal slimes affected by the impeller stirring speed or effective power in a mechanical flotation cell were investigated. The effective power increased as the impeller stirring speed increased but decreased as the coal slime size increased, and air presented a lower effective power than the coal slimes. The dispersion efficiency increased as the effective power increased but decreased as the coal slime size increased, and air presented a higher dispersion efficiency than the coal slimes. Both flotation recovery and matching degree generally increased as the impeller stirring speed increased, and the flotation recovery began to decrease at the impeller stirring speed of 1400 r/min for 0.25–0.045 mm coal slimes and at 1600 r/min for −0.045 mm coal slimes. Both the flotation recovery and matching degree followed the order −0.045 mm＞0.25–0.045 mm＞0.5–0.25 mm.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy consumption
• dispersion
• air
• coal slime
• mechanical flotation cell
• effective power

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51374015), Provincial University Natural Science Foundation of Anhui (Grant No. KJ2016A188) for supporting this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province [1908085QE188];Provincial University Natural Science Foundation of Anhui [KJ2016A188].