MODELING OF FLOCCULATION PROCESS OF FINE COAL FLOTATION TAILINGS IN A CLOSED WATER CIRCULATION CYCLE
In the present work in order to quantify the fundamental possibility of mineral particles flocculation the numerical simulation of the interaction of polymer flocculants with coal flotation tailings particles was carried out. An approach for determining the type of flocculant and its dosage as a function of potential energy particle-macromolecule interaction particle size was proposed. This concept was applied to the fine coal flotation tailings, solid phase of which is comprising about 50 % of particles with size -10 microns and mean zeta potential of the solids is -31 mV. The potential energy particle-macromolecule interaction was determined on the base of extended Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey and Overbeek (DLVO) theory. These calculated data show the fundamental possibility of flocculation investigated tailings by high molecular anionic polyacrylamide flocculants. Also, by calculation it was determined that the minimum value of the particle diameter in the process of flocculation, depending on the flocculant dosage and solids concentration.