Wet versus dry methods

Wet versus dry methods. Dry methods involve dust and may not be suitable if noxious chemicals and other dangerous materials are being treated. On the other hand, wet methods require after-drying with possible loss of... 

Various techniques are available to separate the different types of particles that may be present in a solid mixture. The choice depends on the physicochemical nature of the solids and on site-specific considerations (for example, wet versus dry methods). A key consideration is the extent of the liberation of the individual particles to be separated. Particles attached to each other obviously cannot be separated by direct mechanical means except after the attachment has been broken. In ore processing, the mineral values are generally liberated by size reduction (see Sec. 20). Rarely is liberation complete at any one size, and a physical-separation flow sheet will incorporate a sequence of operations that often are designed first to reject as much... 

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