Performance analysis of beneficiation of coal tailings by froth flotation

Abstract

The present study was carried out to beneficiate coal tailings sample using froth flotation technique. The aim of the investigation was to remove the carbonaceous material present and to reduce the environmental pollution generated through large volume of tailings from a coal preparation plant. The characterization studies show that the sample contains D80 passing size as 276 µ and D50 as 182 µ. The proximate analysis indicated that the coal sample contains 45.3% ash and 34.5% fixed carbon. Froth flotation experiments were carried out at varying parameters of collector dosages (0.60, 0.67 & 0.71 kgpt), frother dosages (0.33, 0.44& 0.51 kgpt) and pulp density (8%, 10% & 12% w/w). The experimental results indicated that the optimum amount of clean coal may be recovered from tailings with an ash content of 18.46% in the clean coal with an appreciable yield of 64.13%. The optimum results were obtained at frother dosage of 0.44 kgpt and collector dosage of 0.60 kgpt with pulp density of 10% (w/w).