Experimental study on treatment of high ash coal slime by three-products flotation

ABSTRACT

In this work, a three-product slime flotation experiment was conducted utilizing a two-stage direct flotation method with the BS collector and dodecane reagent system to maximize the flotation efficiency and reduce the flotation tailings along with an increase in its ash content. Modern analytical methods, such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used for analyzing the surface characteristics of the samples and their interaction with collectors. The results demonstrated a significantly higher ash content of secondary flotation tail coal compared to the primary one with increasing reagent dose. Ash content for clean coal ranges from 8.00% to 9.00% when the overall net coal output surpasses 85%, and it rises to 30.00% to 50.00% for flotation tail coal. The surface hydration membrane and BS collector form a hydrogen bond through the -OH functional group, which results in increased hydrophobicity and effectiveness of flotation.

KEYWORDS:

• Three-product slime flotation
• Two-stage direct flotation
• Ash content
• Collector
• Flotation yield

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52274251), the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (2108085QE212), the University-level key projects of Anhui University of Science and Technology (xjzd2020-21), and the Anhui University of Science and Technology Postgraduate Innovation Fund Project (Grant No. 2021CX2088, Grant No.2022CX1010).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation [2108085QE212]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 52274251]; Anhui University of Science and Technology Postgraduate Innovation Fund Project [No. 2021CX2088,No.2022CX1010]