Abstract
Water plays a crucial role in mineral beneficiation, and thus dewatering the tailings from mineral processing plants has great importance. This paper discusses the influence of chemical conditions (pH, flocculants, surfactants, and coagulants) on the filtration performance of iron ore tailings. The results indicated that Ca2+ and Na+ ions reduced the specific cake resistance from 135 × 1010 kg/m to 50 × 1010 kg/m. because these ions adsorbed on the negative surface of particles resulting in the densifications of the flocs by double electric layer compression. The anionic flocculant was effective, making the flocs more rigid and compact and thus reducing the specific cake resistance. The optimum dosage and the type of flocculant for effective and efficient filtration is approximately 40 g/ton of A-56 anionic flocculant, resulting in the lowest specific cake resistance and the water trapped between flocs. The addition of the surfactant improved the filtration rate probably due to the increase in the hydrophobicity of particles. The coagulant (Al3+) reduced the specific cake resistance, possible due to the compression of the double electric layer. The best filtration was achieved near the point of zero charge of the particles (pH = 6.3). This study showed the advantage of the chemical pretreatment before filtration.
Published Version
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