The Effect of Flotation Reagents Addition (MIBC and PAX) on the Relative Permittivity Value Using 2-Electrode Capacitance Sensor

Abstract

In general, frother and collector are used as reagents to obtain an optimum condition in flotation processes. In this study, the effect of methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) frother and potassium amyl xanthate (PAX) collector on the relative permittivity value using 2-electrode capacitance sensor was conducted. The objective of this study is to know the relative permittivity value of the material affected by MIBC and PAX additions. Permittivity obtained from this study would be used as basic data which is used to analyze the metallurgical performance of flotation process based on the 3-dimensional images (permittivity distribution) using electrical capacitance volume tomography (ECVT) in the further researches. Signal generator, oscilloscope, and 2-electorde capacitance sensor (electrode dimension of 40 x 40 mm) were used to measure the relative permittivity of sample which the samples were measured by using a frequency of 2.5 MHz at room temperature. Frother and collector concentration used in this study were 0.006; 0.085; 0.113; 0.169; and 0.226 Molar of MIBC, and 0.004; 0.007; 0.011; and 0.015 Molar of PAX, respectively. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the relative permittivity value decreases with increasing of MIBC frother and increases with increasing of PAX collector. Minimum and maximum relative permittivity values obtained in this study were 9.70 and 9.72for the frother addition, and 11.12 and 11.17 for the collector addition.