Abstract
Interactions between particles and bubbles have been cornerstone for the successful applications of froth flotation to the beneficiations of minerals or coal. Particle-bubble interactions are highly physio-chemical processes on the basis of surface science and hydrodynamics. Though these two aspects are deeply interwoven, we focus on the discussions of the effects of turbulence on the interactions between particles and bubbles, i.e., collision, attachment and detachment. It has to be mentioned this effect is not working in one direction and can affect flotation performance in a complicated way. Only when turbulence effects are well understood, flotation processes can be optimised by suitably changing equipment structure or operating parameters. The aim of this paper is to review the most recent progresses in this aspect and to identify the future development in successfully considering turbulence effects on flotation processes.
Highlights
Froth flotation is an important operation for the recovery of valuable minerals in the mining industry
The essence of flotation processes lies in the interactions between particles and bubbles, which can be categorized into three successive sub-processes which are bubble-particle collision, attachment and detachment [1,2]
Due to the limitations of current experimental techniques for studying particle-bubble collisions in turbulent flows, to the best of authors’ knowledge, there is no experimental work reported on the collisions between particles and bubbles in turbulent flotation processes
Summary
Froth flotation is an important operation for the recovery of valuable minerals in the mining industry. The essence of flotation processes lies in the interactions between particles and bubbles, which can be categorized into three successive sub-processes which are bubble-particle collision, attachment and detachment [1,2]. These three sub-processes determine the overall performance of flotation processes for treating a particular ore. It is desirable to treat coarse particles using flotation for the early rejection of gangue as large amount of energy can be saved in the comminution processes [11] It is highly necessary for studying particle-bubble interactions under the effects of turbulent flows as they are limiting factors in determining flotation performance [12,13]. Emphasis will be directed towards in depth analysis of the turbulence effects on the whole flotation process
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