Particle mass concentration, flocculation

Fig. 4. Effect of particle mass concentration on flocculation rate.

Figure 1 shows the particulate loading of a pipe containing gas and particulates where the nonuniformity induced by a disturbance, ie, a 90° bend, is obvious (2). A profile of concentration gradients in a long, straight, horizontal pipe containing suspended soHds is shown in Figure 2. Segregation occurs as a result of particle mass. Certain impurities, eg, metal-rich particulates, however, occur near the bottom of the pipe others, eg, oily flocculates, occur near the top (3). Moreover, the distribution may be affected by Hquid-velocity disturbances and pipe roughness.

The hydrostatic pressure results from the weights of the continuous and dispersed phase and can, thus, serve as a measure for the particle mass or volume concentration. In the context of analytical sedimentation, it was already utilised by Ostwald and Hahn (1922), who quantified the rate of sedimentation of flocculated suspensions by means of a hydrostatic pressure gauge. More recent papers report on the manometric determination of the hydrostatic pressure in analytical cuvettes centrifuges with electronic pressure transmitters (Bickert 1997 Beiser 2005). In contrast to the detection systems portrayed above, these manometer centrifuges do not measure a local particle concentration, but the total mass of all particles that are suspended above the point of measurement. The cumulative function of the volume weighted size distribution (gsfxstokes)) can be, thus, computed liom the time derivative of the hydrostatic pressure. In that regard, the manometric detection shows similarity to the sedimentation balance. 

Although the size separation/classification methods are adequate in some cases to produce a final saleable mineral product, in a vast majority of cases these produce Httle separation of valuable minerals from gangue. Minerals can be separated from one another based on both physical and chemical properties (Fig. 8). Physical properties utilized in concentration include specific gravity, magnetic susceptibility, electrical conductivity, color, surface reflectance, and radioactivity level. Among the chemical properties, those of particle surfaces have been exploited in physico-chemical concentration methods such as flotation and flocculation. The main objective of concentration is to separate the valuable minerals into a small, concentrated mass which can be treated further to produce final mineral products. In some cases, these methods also produce a saleable product, especially in the case of industrial minerals. 

There is a gradual transition from particulate setthug into the zone-settling regime, where the particles are constrained to settle as a mass. The principal characteristic of this zone is that the setthug rate of the mass, as observed in batch tests, will be a function of its solids concentration (for any particular condition of flocculation, particle density, etc.). 

The proposed mechanism of effect of surfactant and ultrasound is reported in Fig. 7.5. The long chain surfactant molecules attach to surface of nanoparticles due to physical adsorption. Only thin layer is adsorbed onto the CaC03 nanoparticles. Due to presence of ultrasound and use of surfactant will control the nucleation. Surfactant keeps the particles away from each other by preventing flocculation due to change in surface tension of reaction mass. The concentration of additives was changed from 0.2 to 1.0 g/L. Addition of 0.2 g/L tripolyphosphate shows the increase in the rate of precipitation which is determined from the Ca(OH)2 consumption. Polyacrylic acid shows the least rate of precipitation (0.115 mol/1), which... 

The flocculant that is obtained as a product of aforementioned process contained a small amount of polymer that plays an integral role in the process of suspended particles precipitation. To find out if we can increase its content in the product we investigated how initial concentration of AN affects synthesis kinetics and flocculant s properties. We found out that increase of concentration of initial monomer results in increase of reaction s rate, polymer s content (P) and its molecular mass and in decrease of duration of process and improvement of flocculating properties (Figure 3). 

Increase in temperature results in increase of reaction s rate (active activation energy 83 kj per mole), decrease of its duration and of polymer s molecular mass as well as flocculating properties both velocity of precipitation of suspended particles and purification rate decreased (residual suspended materials concentration increased) (Figure 4). 

Figure 2. The rate of synthesis of flocculant in presence of different concentration of initiator (1), molecular mass of polymer that is obtained in this process (3) and velocity of precipitation of suspended particles of copper oxide by action flocculant (2) versus the concentration of ammonium persulfate. [AN]=16 vol. %, [H2S04]=74 %, 60 °C.

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