- Title
- Ultrafast agglomeration using a novel binder in a continuous plug flow system
- Creator
- Borrow, D. J.; Van Netten, K.; Galvin, K. P.
- Relation
- 29th International Mineral Processing Congress, IMPC 2018. Proceedings of the 29th International Mineral Processing Congress, IMPC 2018 (Moscow, Russian Federation 17-21 September, 2018) p. 2406-2412
- Relation
- ARC.LP160100847 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP160100847
- Publisher
- International Agency of Congress Management (MAKO LLC)
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- A fine coal tailings feed was selectively agglomerated using a concentrated water in oil emulsion binder consisting of 95% aqueous phase and 5% organic phase. The purpose of the study was to investigate a continuous system in plug flow, providing a rapid beneficiation technique with high selectivity and recovery. The development of the novel binder was undertaken in previous work in a batch system consisting of a high-speed blender. In this previous work, it was found that agglomeration could be achieved in 3 s, providing the binder was pre-dispersed. Furthermore, it was found that, depending on the feed, only ~1 wt% of oil was required to achieve agglomeration, some 10 times less than required in traditional oil agglomeration. In a more recent study, the technique was adapted into a continuous process. Due to the rapid speed of the process using the emulsion binder it was found that a simple flow constriction within a 1 inch pipe was sufficient to achieve the selective agglomeration observed in the batch system. In this previous study, a coal feed consisting of a flotation product was agglomerated at a superficial slurry velocity of 1.3 m/s using a partially closed ball valve as the flow constriction. In the current study, a feed consisting of fine coal tailings with an ash content of 50.1% was used to establish the influence of superficial slurry velocity on the agglomeration process. The superficial slurry velocity was varied between 1.3- 4.2 m/s, while maintaining a constant pressure drop of 100 kPa across the flow constriction. The flow constriction consisted of a partially closed ball valve. It was found that increasing the superficial slurry velocity across the flow constriction reduced the amount of organic liquid required to achieve agglomeration. Under the optimum conditions, a combustible recovery of 80.4% was achieved at a product ash content of 9.6%. This work demonstrates a valuable product can be rapidly produced from tailings material using the novel emulsion binder.
- Subject
- continuous agglomeration; beneficiation; concentrated water in oil emulsion; coal; plug flow
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1419080
- Identifier
- uon:37410
- Identifier
- ISBN:9787030227119
- Language
- eng
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