Influence of hydrodynamic variables on scaling up of mechanical flotation cells

Abstract

Flotation performance is influenced by many hydrodynamic variables, such as impeller speed, airflow rate, and cell geometry. These variables’ effects and interactions remain unsatisfactorily explored, especially concerning scaling-up procedures. As an innovative approach, this study considered factorial-designed experiments to explore the effects of hydrodynamic factors (impeller tip speed and superficial gas velocity) on scaling up the Outotec GTK LabCell™ mechanical flotation machine cells, common equipment used as a benchmark for many industrial pre-feasibility studies. Therefore, the influence of hydrodynamic variables and their interactions on flotation performance was evaluated in two cells (2 L and 7.5 L). The evaluation was based on the flotation rate constant “k” calculated by first- and second-order equations. Analysis of the particle size distribution indicated that the performance of the two cells was different, as shown by the finer concentrate for the 2-L cell compared to the 7.5-L cell. The outcomes demonstrated that symmetrical design in the geometry of mechanical flotation cells would lead to an accurate scaling up based on the metallurgical responses. Otherwise, the scaling procedure could only be accurate under some specific conditions. As a criterion, the results showed that using k, the scaling-up process between these two GTK LabCell™ mechanical flotation machine cells (2 L and 7.5 L) would be possible only under a specific superficial gas velocity (0.14 cm/s) apart from the impeller tip speed (R2 = 1). These results could potentially be key for the future design and development of mechanical flotation cells.