Flotation of a refuse tailing fine coal slurry

The flotation process performance of a refuse tailing fine coal slurry sample from a Colombian washing coal plant was studied using a mechanical flotation technique. Flotation parameters investigated included dosage of frother methyl-isobutyl-carbinol (MIBC) and collector (kerosene), as well as scrubbing time for the mechanical flotation cell. Flotation kinetics was also studied in the mechanical flotation cell. The results showed that the refuse tailing fine coal slurry was very straightforward to upgrade by flotation. Flotation yield of 45% (dry basis, db), combustible recovery of 92%, product ash of 20%, db and separation efficiency of 79% were obtained when MIBC was used as frother and kerosene as collector. Those results are in agreement with those obtained in the kinetics study, where the best operation condition was using a collector concentration of 2 lb/t and a frother concentration of 30 ppm of MIBC, which produced the highest flotation rate constant of 0.9457 min− 1.