Effects of nanobubble and hydrodynamic parameters on coarse quartz flotation

Abstract

Quartz, the second most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust, is a gangue mineral in practically every flotation process. Coarse quartz flotation has been a long standing problem in various mineral processing plants to reduce milling cost and increase valuable mineral recovery. Based on this, the effects of nanobubbles (NBs) and hydrodynamic parameters on coarse quartz particle flotation were systematically investigated. Mechanical flotation experiments were carried out using the 7 cm and 9 cm diameter impellers in order to produce different hydrodynamic conditions. 900–1300 rpm impeller speeds were used for the 7 cm diameter impeller and 554–786 rpm for the 9 cm diameter impeller. The results show that the presence of NBs increased the flotation recovery of −425 + 106 μm quartz by up to 21%. For the 7 cm diameter impeller, the maximum flotation recoveries of 86.4% and 98% were obtained in the absence and presence of NBs at Reynolds number (Re) of 81,000 and 66,000, respectively. For the 9 cm diameter impeller, the maximum recoveries of 86.3% and 97.5% were obtained in the absence and presence of NBs at Re of 90,000 and 75,000, respectively. NBs increased the flotation rate constant up to 36%.