EcoFlot. Scape-up and Demonstration of the CoarseAir Flotation Technology

“EcoFlot。粗空气浮选技术的放大和示范—泡沫浮选是最广泛使用的分离技术，用于将不同的矿物相互分离，以提高矿物矿石的品位（纯度）并产生精矿。该精矿中金属的品位必须足够高，以便经济地将材料熔炼以生产该金属。泡沫浮选的一个重大挑战是，矿石颗粒需要磨得非常细，以使当前的浮选装置设计达到最佳效果。这种研磨所需的能源通常是采矿和矿物加工中最大的单一能源成本，因此代表了重大的经济和环境成本。如果浮选可以在更粗的颗粒尺寸上进行，那么将大大节省能源。因此，该项目的目的是支持从实验室规模测试装置到全面工业规模应用的新型粗颗粒浮选池设计的发展。这个项目有许多学术和工业合作伙伴组织在各个方面工作，但帝国理工学院对这个项目的贡献将是通过这些细胞的建模和模拟。在项目的第一阶段，我们将使用实验室规模细胞的数据来改进和扩展我们开发的流体流动和相关颗粒传输的模拟软件，并验证模拟器的性能。由于我们将使用的模型直接基于这些系统的物理特性，因此对模拟器模拟实验室规模单元的能力的信心将转化为对模拟器预测试验性能的信心，最终，这种新型细胞的全尺寸版本。然后，该模拟器将允许我们评估不同设计修改和相关操作条件的性能，而无需昂贵的制造和实验测试。这意味着只需要对最有希望的设计和操作条件进行实验测试，从而节省成本和时间。这些测试的结果，以及在预测和实际性能之间观察到的任何差异，将使我们能够进一步提高模拟器的性能，特别是当我们将机器的设计和测试规模从中试规模扩大到商业规模时。”

“EcoFlot. Scale-up and Demonstration of the CoarseAir Flotation Technology - Froth flotation is the most widely used separation technology for separating different minerals from one another in order to increase the grade (purity) of mineral ores and to produce a concentrate. The grade of the metal of the metal in this concentrate must be high enough that the material can be economically smelted in order to produce the metal. A significant challenge with froth flotation is that ore particles need to be ground very fine for current flotation cell designs to work optimally. The energy required for this grinding is typically the biggest single energy cost in mining and minerals processing, thus representing both a significant economic and environmental cost. If flotation could be done at coarser particle sizes it would therefore result in significant energy savings. The aim of this project is therefore to support the development of a novel coarse particle flotation cell design from a lab scale test unit to full industrial scale application.This project has a number of academic and industrial partner organisations working on various aspects, but the contribution of Imperial College to this project will be through the modelling and simulation of these cells. In the first stage of the project we will use data from the lab scale cell to improve and extend the simulation software that we have develop for fluid flow and associated particle transport, as well as to validate the simulator’s performance. As the models that we will be using are directly based on the physics of these systems, confidence gained in the simulator’s ability to model the lab scale unit will translate into confidence in the simulator’s ability to predict the performance of pilot and, ultimately, full scale versions of this novel cell.This simulator will then allow us to evaluate the performance of different design modifications and associated operating conditions without the need for expensive fabrication and experimental testing. This will mean that only the most promising designs and sets of operating conditions will need to be experimentally tested, saving both costs and time. The results from these tests, together with any discrepancies observed between the predicted and actual performance will allow us to further improve our simulator’s performance, especially as we increase the scale of the machines being designed and tested from the pilot scale up to commercial scale units.”