Process intensification of stirred pulp-mixing in flotation

Abstract With the increasing demands for the high efficiency of pulp-mixing, which is adapted to the fine particles entering into flotation section, an intensification pulp-mixing device with novel design has been developed. On the basis of numerical simulation, which indicated efficient circulation and shear effect of the “maleic-cutting” configuration equipped with static-guide-blade, the power dissipation amount P V , mixing time θ m , power number N P , mixing time number N θ , C S which reflects shear property, suspension percentage φ /Φ(%), and concentration variance σ 2 were measured, analyzed and compared with the ordinary agitated tank. Combining with actual mineral separation tests, performance of the efficient pulp-mixing device characterized by “multi-stage and compulsory” has been validated: the “multi-stage and compulsory” mixing device corresponds to a different circulation/shear energy; under the same operating conditions, the absolute advantages in the aspect of mixing time are the root cause for the increase of mixing efficiency; the “maleic-cutting” configuration is less influenced by pulp-mixing time and has the characteristics of achieving fast mixing; the strong shear effect mechanism is the root cause for the realization of pulp-mixing intensification on fine-particle and microfine-particle materials. Therefore, the “multi-stage and compulsory” mixing device designed by this research successfully accomplished intensification of pulp-mixing effect.