‘Avaliable online at wwrwescienceairectcom =— ‘nema arf serenoe Gomecr: MINERAL PROCESSING ELSEVIER Int 4. Mice rowen77 (2005) 45-79 A compartment model for the mass transfer inside a conventional flotation cell ON. Savassi® inte int ea ‘Receive 17 Jame 2004; ese in evi fren 7 February 208; nesepd 21 February 2005 ‘Aalble oline 12 May 2005, rida Perl de Mima Gras sprit Sant 3S. Blo Horan, CEP 30160-080,Brant Abstract ‘A model is developed by ting iow account the simultncous mechanisms of tue Aottion and entrainment in a conventional flotation cell, The toa volume ofthe cells divided imo tee compartments: pulp collection zoe, pulp quiescent ‘Zone and oth region, withthe asechanisms Deng modeled as occurring atthe sam ume Bu rina a ret lees TS ‘Hotton fom the clleton zone and entrainment fom the quiescent one. A parle ls refered Wo a suspended fn Watt oF attaches to an ar bubble. depending upon its original state befoce crossing the pulp-ftdh Interface (whether or not emai that state all the way 1 the concentrate launder), The model is obwined by solving a set of equations describing the mass ‘conservation of solids and watcr betwoon adjacent compartments. The principal mass tansfer factors ae healed a the ‘outon rate constat, the mean reskdence Lume In the clita zone, the HO recovery OF atached panicles, the degree Of ‘puinment tough the fh andthe water recovery from the fee to the concentrate. The development prescted ere allows ‘he nticae nate ofthe mass ansfr in a lotain cll tobe reduced o ae single equation overcoming the need of aumcrical ‘methods for simulation purposes. Morcover, is shown tha reliable prediction of grade and rover) canbe obtained without ‘douied information on the pulp bydrodyramics or on any foth sub-process citer than drainage, bubble bursting and bubble ftalewence (© 2005 Ehevier BLY. Al rights reserved. -erwond:Hoaton eling; mane wanlr, te Man: entinmest: pulp hy doy 1. Introduction 1.1. Overview of the mass transfer inside ‘conventional flotation ceil {tis well established thatthe pulp in a conventional Wt, Canad OAS MES Aston cell must be thoroughly agitated in order to mula avon ‘promote solids suspension as well as effective bub- *44:10,1016 mie 00s 0003,ble-patticle collision (Dewner, 1985). Excessive agita- tion, on the other hand, not only wastes power but also impairs metallurgical performance by increasing the probability of bubble-particle detachment in the impeller vicinity Jameson, 1977; Jowett, 1980; ‘Ahmed and Jameson, 1989), At the proper range of Impeller speed, there is circulation of suspended par- ticles through the pulp and the turbulence drops swiflly away from the impeller blades (Fallenius, 1987; Gosman et al, 1992). The efficiency of bub- ble-patticle collision, however, is also known to decrease with the turbulence in the pulp (Jameson, 1977; Dobby and Finch, 1987), Therefore, the effi- ciency of bubble-particle collision in a conventional cell isa function of spatial position, dropping fiom the impeller blades towards the pulp-froth interface (aoue, 1984). Unfortunately, such a function cannot be quantified without mapping the pulp hydrody namics for specific cell geometries and operating conditions, which is nota trivial tsk The efficiency of bubble-particle attachment must ii te eee sue pares tetas ‘bubble will attach to it (Dobby and Finch, 1887, Cronford and Ralston, 198). In this seme, as & bubbie travels through the impeller vicinity, ittends to collect the most hydrophobic particles in its path, this boing the primary soutee of flotation selectivity. How- ‘ever, depending on the pulp chemical environment, several physico-chemical processes may occur that will affect the efficiency of bubble-particle attach- ment, such as “ageing” of particle surfaces and agglomeration between hydrophobic and hyetophilic particles (Greene and Duke, 1962). With increasing distance from the impeller blades, there is a transition to a less turbulent oF quiescent zone, which is essential for the stability of the pulp~ froth interface, Cell manufacturers have recognised thatthe quiescent 2one, “being less turbulent, permits the upward migration of mineral-laden air bubbles with minimal opportunity for bubble-paticle separa- tion (Smith et al., 1982)", At the pulp-foth interface, air bubbles ascending fom the quiescent zone cause ‘water and suspended particles to beeome entrained in the oth, imrespective of particle hydrophobicity (Smith and Warren, 1989), Despite the tact that fine valuable particles can also be recovered by entrain ment (Engelbrecht anal Woodburn, 1975), this mechanism is a drawback in terms of the selectivity Of separation, always resulting in lower concentrate grades (Johnson, 1972; Trahar, 1981). Particle detachment within the froth is eaused pri marily by bubble bursting and bubble coalescence (Feteris et al, 1987; Faluisu, 1994), The detached particles become suspended in the voids between the remaining air bubbles, together with the particles that ‘entered the froth by entrainment. A high proportion of the particles suspended in the voids (entrained and detached particles) are rejected to the pulp due to water drainage. The suspended particles that survive éeainage and the ones sill attached to the air bubbles are transported to the concentrate launder by the ‘ascending motion of the froth (Moys, 1978; Yianatos ct al, 1988). Additional to babble bursting, bubble coalescence and water drainage, other sub-pracesses have been postulated (without supporting experimen- tal evidence) fo take place within the foth, including selective detachment of weak hydrophobie particles that would be caused by fietion with the water dain- ing trom between the bubbles. ‘The fact thot inreasing froth depth leads to higher concentrate grade in a cleaner cell is. sometimes invoked as proof for the significance of selective detachment, However, that fact can just as well be ‘explained by a simple sequence of events: (a) unse- lective detachment of both weak and strong hydro- phobic particles dae to increased bubble bursting and bubble coalescence in the froth; (b) drainage of the detached particles back 10 the pulp: (6) faster re- attachment of the strong hydrophobic particles in the pulp; and (4) rejection of the particles that dd not re- ‘attach 10 the tail of the cell the majority of which being weak hydrophobic. This not only explains the increase in grade but also the drop in recovery. Against the significance of selective detachment, ‘can certainly be argued that most of the weakly ttched particles will detach in the turbulent impeller Vicinity, long before the aggregate reaches the pulp~ froth interface. In addition, a study of the forces acting. ‘upon the aggregates in the froth shows that attachment is about three orders of magnitude stronger than the friction generated by water drainage (Falutss, 1994). Moreover, in one of the rare cases where the grade of attached particles was measured directly, there was no ‘grade variation in going from the pulp to the froth or within the froth itself Falutsu and Dobby, 1992). This clearly indicates that selective detachment was notsignificant, otherwise an upgrading of the attached particles should have been observed as the bubbles ascended through the froth. 1.2. Modeling approach The central assumption of the model is that mue flotation and entrainment are the main mass transfer ‘mechanisms occurring in the cell. Neither particle ageing nor particle agglomeration will be considered for model development, due to the practical difficulty ‘of measuring these phenomena in industrial cells ‘Therefore, model application must be restricted 10 flotation systems where particle hydrophobicity is ‘not a function of residence time and where the parti- cles suspended in the pulp are reasonably dispersed fiom cach other. Another key assumption is thet all particles within the same class exhibic the same behaviour. This means that elass boundaries should be defined according to the physical propertics that most strongly affect te flotation and entrainment and also tha’ there should be ‘no significant difference in hydrophobicity from one particle to another within the same class, Neverthe- less, the definition of class boundaries for any indus- ‘rial application will always depend on a compromise ‘between the cost of data acquisition and the accuracy ‘of model prediction; both of which inerease in the following order: (a) mineral classes; (b) mineral-by~ size classes (Tahar, 1981); and (@) mineralbysize- by-liberation classes (King, 1976), Current attempts at applying computer fuid dynamics, CFD, to investigate the relationship between pulp hydrodynamics and the efficiency of bubble-par- ticle collision are still beset by a large number of ‘unconfirmed assumptions. In this paper, the problem will be simplified by assuming that there is collection ‘one around the impeller blades, whersin all particles ‘of the same class are collected at the same flotation rate ‘constant, imespective of spatial postion. It will also be ‘assumed that the volume between the collection zane and the froth region constitutes 2 the entrainment mechanism originates from and where neither attachment nor detachment occurs at a signifi- cant rate. The collection zone will be assumed to be perfect mixed for water and for al suspended particles. ‘The quiescent zone, on the other hand, will be assumed to be agitated enough for perfect mixing of water and fine suspended particles, but not as much as to cause re-circulation of bubble-particle aggregates. In this sense, all panicles exiting the collection Zone attached to an ascending air bubble should remain in that state until they eross the pulp-froth interface. In addition, the mass transfer through the froth will be related 10 the flow of originally suspended and ori- ‘ginally attached particles entering that region, which is the same as treating the entire froth as a black box. Therefore no assumption is required on the extent of any sub-processes that might be taking place within the floth region, In summary, the total volume of the cell is divided into three compartments: pulp collection zone, pulp quiescent zone and ftoth region, The main mass trans- fer mechanisms are modeled as occurring at the same time but originating at different places: truc flotation from the collection zone and entrainment fom the quiescent one. A panicle is referred to as suspended {in ater or attached to an air bubble, depending upon its original state before crossing the pulp-froth interface (ame as treating the entire froth region asa black box). Once the cell is assumed to be a steady state, itis not necessary to take into aecount the path of individual particles but rather the mass transfer betwcen adjacent compartments (that is, the recent origin of the parti- cles). This approach allows the mass conservation of solids and water inside the eel! to be deseribed by one ingle equation, and thus overcomes the need of numer ical methods for simulation purposes. Dividing the pulp into collection and quiescent zones, however, brings about the problem of estimating the relative Volume of these compartments. This is a key issue that will be revisited later in the paper. 2. Model development 2.1, Recovery by entrainment Entrainment of water and suspended pasticles into the froth is caused by air bubbles ascending through the pulp-ftoth interface (Subralrmanyam and For: ssberg, 1988; Laplante etal, 1989; Smith and Warren, 1989). This mechanism is independent of particle surfuce properties and thus affects both the hydropho- bic and hydrophilic particles suspended in the pulp (Engelbrecht and Woodbum, 1975; Trahar, 1981).