Hydrophobic Frothers for
Mineral Processing
Frothers
Development and testing
by :
Levi Guzman Rivera
Moly-Cop Adesur S.A
Introduction
Froth flotation is a highly
interactive
system including
water
chemistry,
pH,
hidrodynamic, particle size, etc.
The answer appears to be that
changing frother chemistry
structure
could
improve
metallurgical performance
Moly-Cop Adesur S.A has
been involved in developing
new frother chemistry.
Moly-Cop Adesur
Experience
Overview
A long experience with the frother
business, due to since 1987 to 1992
was the exclusive representative of
Ore Prep Chemicals.
In 1992
was formed Mineral
Reagents
International
Inc.,
Moly-Cop Adesur S.A. was chosen
to be one of the pilot business unit for
testing and developing new frothers
under Dr. Richard Klimpel direction.
Moly-Cop Adesur
Experience
Overview
In 1994 Armco signed an agreement
with
Dow
Chemical
Co.
to
commercialize
Dowfroth
mining
products
and
manufacture
new
chemical products for mining industry
In 1998 Moly-Cop Adesur S.A. built
its own blending facility in Callao
Lima.
In 2002 Moly-Cop
relocated its blending
Anita Lima.
Adesur S.A.
facility To Sta
BLENDING AND STORAGE FACILITIES
Total Area 2,000 m2
Storage capacity :
1 tk 60,000 gl
6 tks 10,000 gl
Blending Capacity :
2 tks 8 Mt / batch
400 Mt/mth
FROTHERS EVOLUTION - OVERVIEW
Frothers Generation I
Naturally Derived
materials as:
Inexpensive to
Pine oil
Very variable in
Cresilic acid
Xilenol
moderately priced
quality
Environmentally
regulated
FROTHERS EVOLUTION - OVERVIEW
Frothers Generation II
Alcohols
Inexpensive to
Glycols
moderately priced
Polyglycols methyl
ether
Consistent in quality
Modified Alcohols
Environmentally not
Carbonyl materials
regulated
Effective used alone.
FROTHERS EVOLUTION - OVERVIEW
Frothers Generation III
Taylor made blendings
Alcohol/Poliglycol
High MW Alcohol
Polyglicol Type
Inexpensive to
moderately priced
Consistent in quality
Effective used alone
Low dosage
Environmentally not
regulated
Main Frother
Families
MOLY-COP FROTHERS DEVELOPMENT
Alcohol
group
Alkoxys
group
Polyglycols
group
The alcohol
group
FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION
Alcohol group generally include 4 to 10 carbon
atoms in either linear , branched, cyclical or
aromatic form. (R-OH)
Aliphatic alcohols such as MIBC,
Hexanol, 2 Ethyl hexanol, has been
used extensively
Pine Oil, Cresylic acid, and 2,3 Xilenol have been
used industrially for decades, but due to
environmental concerns have been almost replaced
completely
The alcohol
group
FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION
Typically such aliphatic alcohol frothers show
less tenacity, lower water retention and more
brittle froth than other groups.
Alcohols have low water solubility,
are the most sensitive to pH changes,
and have the highest kinetics rate.
Due the low water retention, gives improved
selectivity for slimes, but are not good for
coarse flotation.
The alkoxys
group
FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION
This is new frother chemistry of which the best
known product is TEB. Those are not
extensively used..
Alkoyxs group have good water
solubility, and are less sensitive to pH
changes
The use characteristic is similar to Pine Oil
except that too much dosage does not affect the
froth character.
Polyglycol group
FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION
Polyglycol group represents the maximum
flexibility for the flotation engineer when the
correct frother is chosen.
The most common families are PGME
and PPG frothers, Dowfroth products
are representative of this frothers
(DF200, DF200, DF1012)
PGME gives improved water retention/drenage
action. Show more persistant froths than alcohols.
so only one stage dosage is required in most cases.
Polyglycol group
FROTHERS FAMILIES DESCRIPTION
When compared to alcohols the recovery at
same or higher dosage is usually higher, but at
low dosages shows less recovery than alcohols.
PGME and PPG frothers are less
sensitive to changes in pH but have
slow kinetics compared to alcohols
Are good for coarse or slimes flotation,
according to the molecular weight in despite of
selectivity.
FROTHER REQUIREMENTS
Frothers
Requirements
Environmentally Safe
High Kinetics rate of flotation
Froth Stability and volume
Water drainage action
Low sensitivity to changes in Ph
Must break readily
It must readily dispersible
It should be relatively cheap
Frothers
Clasification
FROTHER CLASIFICATION
By particle size interaction
By Kinetics rate
using DFI and CCC
By particle Size interaction
FROTHER CHEMICAL STRUCTURE
DF-1263
DF-400
DF-1012
DF-250
HEXANOL
DF-200
MIBC
20
30
50
100
70
Particle size, (microns)
200
300
500
we can notice that each specific frother is related to an effective particle size
ranges of particles, so we can deduct that no one frother structure can generally
float the broadness of particle size distribution in flotation process.
By particle Size interaction
MIBC
H508
H225
DF200
CAPACIDAD DE LEVANTE POR TAMAOS
% Recuperacion en Peso
15,00
13,00
11,00
9,00
7,00
5,00
10
35
60
85
110
135
160
Tamao de Particula (micrones)
185
210
235
By particle Size interaction
% Cu Recovery
Frother and Particle size interaction
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65
DF250
MIBC
H212
10
100
Particle Size (microns)
1000
By particle & Molecular Weight
SELECTIVE
12
11
Calculated HLB
10
Glycero
l(PO)
n
T402
CH (C
3 3 H O)
6 n OH
DF400
DF1012
DF1263
T411
MIBC
E
W
O
U
RF
MIBC-2PO
Hexanol-2PO
-Terpineol
Hexanol
5
4
100
200
300
400
500
600
Molecular Weight
700
800
900
1000
By Kinetics Rate
1
Ri = R 1 (
) [1 exp( Kt ) ]
Kt
By Kinetics Rate
100
90
% Cu recovery
80
C-800
F-501
70
H-225
60
H-425
50
H-525
40
H-530
H-602
30
20
0
10
Flotation time (min)
12
14
16
18
By Kinetics Rate
(%) Pb recovery
Flotacion Bulk (Pb-Ag)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
H425
TPG
H212
DF250
flotation time(min)
10
By Kinetics Rate
95
%Cu Recovery
85
H-530
H-525
H-520
H-515
H-501
75
65
55
45
35
25
0
10
Flotation Time (min)
15
20
By DFI and CCC
rt
DFI =
C C 0
V
rt =
Q
Frother
MIBC
HEX
DEMPH
DEH
MPDEH
(PO)1
(PO)2
DF-200
DF-250
DF-1012
DFI
s.L/mol
34,000
33,000
290,000
94,000
170,000
5,700
35,000
196,000
208,000
267,000
CCC
mmol/L
0.11
0.079
0.013
0.031
0.016
0.52
0.17
0.089
0.033
0.015
DFI x CCC
S
3.74
2.61
3.77
2.91
2.72
2.96
5.95
18.44
6.86
4.0
By DFI and CCC
2.5
DF200
DF250
DF1012
MIBC
Sauter Diameter (mm)
CCC for DF200
1.5
CCC for MIBC
0.5
CCC for
DF1012
CCC for
DF250
0
0
0.1
0.2
Concentration (mmol/L)
0.3
0.4
By DFI and CCC
300000
DEMPH
DFI (s.L/mol)
DF1012
DF250
200000
DF200
MPDEX
100000
DEH
HEX MIBC
(PO)1
(PO)2
0
0
0.2
0.4
CCC (mmol/L)
0.6
Conclusions
Moly-Cop Adesur S.A. research is based in giving to
the frother different properties as kinetics, selectivity,
grain size floatability, froth stability, these ones are
combined to obtain the best metallurgical performance
for each application.
The broad of products developed by Moly-Cop
Adesur S.A., allows to address specific mineral
processing problems by providing the best hydrophobic
frother solution.
Conclusions
In research work, there were
identified some trends in
order to improve the frother
capability, as follows:
To float slimes and coarse
particles
Larger flotation cells require
more stronger frother
Alternative
equipments
(column cells, Flash Flotation,
etc)
More complex ores systems
(Oxides)
Improve Kinetics rate
........ many others
Conclusions
Moly-Cop
Adesur
S.A.
supports its products with technical
service in terms of testing and
developing new products, this work
is
normally
developed
with
metallurgical personnel so that the
problem can be better addressed.
Currently it has been identified five
families of frother for froth flotation
denoted as MCFroth (H series),
H100, H200, H300, H400 and
H500.
Conclusions
Need to blending frothers in order
to improve particle size flotability
Making
frothers
more
hydrophobic, it is possible to
float coarser particles
Need to combine kinetics rate, frother
stability, and other properties from
different chemical families
Conclusions
Lab testing gives good approach for
new raw materials an to analyze froth
(persistance, breakage, etc)
Plant testing in a on/off way to
determine consumption an
metallurgical performance
Dynamic frother optimization to improve
metallurgical results as support
