Cleaning columns

摘要

The economic recovery of fine coal has traditionally been problematic due to high processing costs and poor separation performance. Over the last decade, however, column flotation cells have emerged as an effective means for recovering the fine coal as a high grade product. The advantage of a column flotation cell over a conventional mechanical cell is the quality of the froth product. Column flotation cells use a combination of a deep froth and a high level of wash water to minimise the hydraulic entrainment of clays, resulting in a high grade coal product. An example of an industrial-scale froth washing system on a column flotation cell is presented in Figure 1.