Application of novel flotation systems to fine coal cleaning

Flotation devices, which exhibit different particle-bubble attachment efficiency owing to the different mineralization patterns, are critical to flotation performance of fine particles. In this paper, three flotation systems with the mineralization mechanisms of countercurrent, cyclone, and jet were used for the benefit of coking coal, and how coal particles with different size fractions responded to these three flotation systems was investigated. Separation efficiency was used to evaluate the flotation performance of these three flotation devices. It was found that the jet-flow environment was beneficial for recovering fine particles (<45 mu m), and that the cyclone environment could be applied for the effective separation of intermediate particles (250 to 45 mu m), while the countercurrent environment responded well to coarse particles (-500 to +250 mu m). This study may provide guidance for the flotation of coal samples with a specific particle-size distribution.