Evaluación del trabajo de un hidrociclón para el espesamiento de la pulpa de yeso. Evaluation of the work of a hydrocyclone for the thickening of the gypsum pulp

Abstract

The work presents the results obtained in a laboratory scale study, using a hydrocyclone, in order to identify the most favorable operating conditions to increase the percentage of solid in the gypsum pulp obtained in the neutralization, one of the stages processing of nickel laterites. For the tests, a pilot plant was used: a hydrocyclone, a pulp storage tank and a centrifugal pump, selecting as study parameters: solid concentration at the entrance and working pressure, to analyze the influence of these Variables on the percentage of solid at the hydrocyclone outlet. The experiments were carried out at three levels applying a complete multilevel factorial experiment design, resulting in nine experiments, with two replicates each to guarantee the reliability of the results. The operating conditions of the hydrocyclone at which the desired percentage of solid was reached were determined and the statistical processing was performed using the professional program STATGRAPHICS.Centurion.XV.v15.2.14, proving that the working pressure was the variable that significantly influenced with a positive effect on the solids percentage at the discharge of the hydrocyclone. In the results it was observed that for the high level of working pressure (262 kPa) the highest percentage of solids was obtained for each of the percent of solids in the feed, confirmed aspect in the statistical model that denotes in terms of amount Influence of the measured variables.