A ROBUST CHEMICALLY ENHANCED ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION TECHNOLOGY

摘要

Physical separation processes such as gravity, magnetic and electrostatic separations are extensivelyrnused in heavy minerals separations. Electrostatic (aka High-Tension) separation facilitated by thernconductivity differences, in particular, is used for separating rutile from zircon. Although electrostaticrnseparation is effective, it is not efficient. It suffers from separation efficacy issues owing to sensitivernvariables such as humidity, surface contamination, particle sizes and the temperature of the feedrnand other equipment parameters. The variations in the process conditions especially with humidity,rntemperature of the feed and the mineralogy and surface impurities can cause significant reductionrnin the separation resulting in production rate losses and product quality issues. Cytec Industriesrnhas developed chemical enhancement technologies for electrostatic separation for rutile –zirconrnseparation from the heavy minerals. The major advantage of our technology is its higher separationrnefficacy in the first pass, substantial energy savings and most importantly its ability to do separationrnat room temperatures. The bolt-on nature to the existing electrostatic also an added feature thatrnreduces the capital expenditure significantly. The separation efficiency between rutile and zirconrnwas increased as much as 8 - 11 per cent compared to control. It is possible to extend the chemicalrnenhancer technology to problematic feeds and other mineral systems that are not easily amenable tornconventional electrostatic separation.