Nanobubbles effect on the mechanical flotation of phosphate ore fine particles

Froth flotation is one of the main methods for processing of phosphate ores. However, flotation of fine particles, especially phosphate ores, has always been one of the fundamental problems. For example, about 10% of Esfordi phosphate processing plant ore with a grade of more than 16% P2O5 and d80 of less than 30 μm is sent to the tailing dam. Flotation using nanobubbles generated by hydrodynamic cavitation is one of the latest industrial techniques to recycle fine particles of minerals. A significant recovery increment in flotation of fine particles using nanobubbles has been one of the main topics of flotation science in recent years. Fine bubbles have important effects on the gas holdup, which is necessary in the froth flotation cell of mineral based process industries. At a given gas holdup, using finer bubbles can reduce frother consumption. An exclusive nanobubble generation system has been developed at Iran Mineral Processing Research Center (IMPRC) for evaluating the effect of nanobubbles on froth flotation. This device enhances venturi tubes and works based on cavitation phenomena. In this study, a comparison of conventional flotation and nanobubble enhanced flotation in mechanical cells was carried out on two types of phosphate ore samples. As a result, the flotation recovery had a significant increment of more than 30% in the case of using nanobubbles versus conventional flotation in the same grade of P2O5.

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Opracowanie rekordu w ramach umowy 509/P-DUN/2018 ze środków MNiSW przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę (2019).