Study on Kinetic Modelling for Fine Coal Flotation

Abstract

Flotation models are useful for practical quantitative work, many are widely used to assist in the design of new equipment and processes. The analyses of petrographical composition, size fraction, and density distributions of the coal sample were used to detect its floatability and quality characteristics. The flotation rate constant k values of the five traditional kinetic models parameters were calculated by software MATLAB7.0. In addition, we discussed a new kinetic model-fitting approach for coal flotation. Results show that the main gangue mineral in the fine coal is kaolinite. The middle density fraction of 1.40–1.60 g/cm³ has a high yield, which indicates that the coal sample is not easy to separate. The k value can reflect the floatability. During the flotation process, the k value decreases, and the floatability worsens. The experimental data of various size fractions show that the new modified model has more advantages compared with the five traditional models. The correlation coefficient (R ²) value of the new modified model is 1.00, and the SSE value is close to 0.

Keywords:

• Flotation
• Kinetics
• Model
• Rate constant
• Recovery

Acknowledgments

The Authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2012CB214900) and National High Technology Research and Development Program 863 (Grant No. 2007AA05Z339).