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Investigating the effect of frother type on froth structure, froth recovery and entrainment

Mineral processing involves liberation and beneficiation operations. Several beneficiation processes exist and one such important process is froth flotation. The flotation process involves the transportation of valuable minerals of a hydrophobic nature into the froth and to the concentrate launder....

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Main Author: Marozva, Tafadzwa
Other Authors: McFadzean, Belinda
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Chemical Engineering 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Marozva, Tafadzwa
author2 McFadzean, Belinda
author_browse Marozva, Tafadzwa
McFadzean, Belinda
author_facet McFadzean, Belinda
Marozva, Tafadzwa
author_sort Marozva, Tafadzwa
collection Thesis
description Mineral processing involves liberation and beneficiation operations. Several beneficiation processes exist and one such important process is froth flotation. The flotation process involves the transportation of valuable minerals of a hydrophobic nature into the froth and to the concentrate launder. This hydrophobicity may be natural or imparted by a collector. Froth structure is significant in determining the froth stability which has an effect on the grade and recovery of valuable minerals. The froth structure is dependent on amongst other factors the type of frothers used during the separation process. As a result, frother type and concentration can be used to manipulate the froth recovery and grade of valuable mineral recovered. Upper Group 2 (UG2) ore contains chromite minerals which are naturally hydrophilic. The chromite minerals are usually recovered in the concentrate mainly due to entrainment. This lowers the grade of valuable minerals recovered and poses detrimental effects to downstream operations. Thus, the froth structure plays an important role in the flotation performance of UG2 ore. This project was aimed at investigating the effect of chain length and functional group of different frothers on the froth stability, froth recovery and entrainment. Froth recovery, entrainment, solids and water recovery, as well as metallurgical recovery, were measured in a laboratory scale continuous column flotation cell. Froth stability was measured in a froth stability column, which is a non-overflowing column in which froth rise rate and equilibrium height were measured. A series of increasing molecular weight polyglycol and alcohol frothers, and their blends, were used to investigate the effect of frother type on froth structure.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:49:06.015Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Chemical Engineering
publisherStr Department of Chemical Engineering
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13753 Investigating the effect of frother type on froth structure, froth recovery and entrainment Marozva, Tafadzwa McFadzean, Belinda Wiese, Jenny Chemical Engineering Mineral processing involves liberation and beneficiation operations. Several beneficiation processes exist and one such important process is froth flotation. The flotation process involves the transportation of valuable minerals of a hydrophobic nature into the froth and to the concentrate launder. This hydrophobicity may be natural or imparted by a collector. Froth structure is significant in determining the froth stability which has an effect on the grade and recovery of valuable minerals. The froth structure is dependent on amongst other factors the type of frothers used during the separation process. As a result, frother type and concentration can be used to manipulate the froth recovery and grade of valuable mineral recovered. Upper Group 2 (UG2) ore contains chromite minerals which are naturally hydrophilic. The chromite minerals are usually recovered in the concentrate mainly due to entrainment. This lowers the grade of valuable minerals recovered and poses detrimental effects to downstream operations. Thus, the froth structure plays an important role in the flotation performance of UG2 ore. This project was aimed at investigating the effect of chain length and functional group of different frothers on the froth stability, froth recovery and entrainment. Froth recovery, entrainment, solids and water recovery, as well as metallurgical recovery, were measured in a laboratory scale continuous column flotation cell. Froth stability was measured in a froth stability column, which is a non-overflowing column in which froth rise rate and equilibrium height were measured. A series of increasing molecular weight polyglycol and alcohol frothers, and their blends, were used to investigate the effect of frother type on froth structure. 2015-08-15T05:30:51Z 2015-08-15T05:30:51Z 2015 Master Thesis Masters MSc (Eng) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13753 eng application/pdf Department of Chemical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Chemical Engineering
Marozva, Tafadzwa
Investigating the effect of frother type on froth structure, froth recovery and entrainment
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Investigating the effect of frother type on froth structure, froth recovery and entrainment
title_full Investigating the effect of frother type on froth structure, froth recovery and entrainment
title_fullStr Investigating the effect of frother type on froth structure, froth recovery and entrainment
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the effect of frother type on froth structure, froth recovery and entrainment
title_short Investigating the effect of frother type on froth structure, froth recovery and entrainment
title_sort investigating the effect of frother type on froth structure froth recovery and entrainment
topic Chemical Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13753
work_keys_str_mv AT marozvatafadzwa investigatingtheeffectoffrothertypeonfrothstructurefrothrecoveryandentrainment