Immersion Calorimetry of Fine Coal Particles and its Relation to Flotation

Abstract

A Setaram C-80 heat flux microcalorimeter was used to study the surface and interfacial properties of fine coal particles in water containing flotation agents via heat of immersion measurements. Heat of immersion (..delta..H/sub imm/) is usually a small exothermic quantity and can be used to characterize a solid in terms of its relative hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity. The effects of coal type, surface oxidation, mineral matter content, kerosene concentration, and pH on the wetting characteristics were investigated. Although coal is a heterogeneous mixture of organic and inorganic materials, immersional calorimetry has proven to be quite helpful in measuring surface properties of coal, and the following conclusions can be drawn: The heat of immersion decreased with increasing kerosene concentration, which corresponds to the coal particles increasing hydrophobicity; in varying the pH, the ..delta..H/sub imm/ went through a minimum at a pH value of 6.5 to 7.0, which coincides with the reported optimum pH range for flotation; both oxidation and clay slime coating (addition of kaolin), which are known to make the coal less hydrophobic, increased the ..delta..H/sub imm/; and the trends that were shown to exist in the heat of immersion measurements (for varying kerosene concentration, pH oxidation, and clay slime coating)more » correlated well with independent flotation experiments. 16 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs.« less