Mineral processing is the most important technological link in the mining and processing complex for the extraction and processing of mineral raw materials.
The processing of mineral raw materials is associated with a significant consumption of water for technological needs. Therefore, the end products of enrichment contain a large amount of water, which must be separated from the solid phase, purified and sent to the process as recycled. As a result of dehydration, which receives the original mineral, as well as intermediate and final enrichment products, not only the quality of the products is improved, but also the loss of mineral raw materials is reduced.
Dehydration is the removal of water from voids in a filter cake. The filter cake is a porous system in which the channel structure can be represented as a collection of capillaries.
Therefore, for the proper organization of the dehydration process, one should take into account the form of the connection of moisture with the material, which is divided into three main types:
– physical and mechanical moisture – this moisture in significant quantities can be removed by mechanical means;
– physicochemical – depending on the nature of the mineral, its content can reach up to 40%. Typically, such moisture is removed by drying;
– chemical – its removal is possible with strong drying of the material (for example, calcination of aluminium hydrate to alumina).
The residual content of physico-mechanical and physico-chemical moisture in the cake may be due to the phenomenon of capillary rise.
Surfactants that can increase the contact angle between a liquid and a solid surface and at the same time reduce the surface tension of water are used to reduce the moisture of the filter cake and increase the filtration rate.
Such surfactants are used to filter iron ore, sulfide and non-sulfide mineral concentrates, pure coal and aluminum hydrate precipitated from Bayer technological solutions.
When filtering aluminum hydrate precipitated from Bayer technological solutions, the expected economic effect of the use of the reagent is determined by the amount of fuel saved for calcining the hydrate.
In addition to the reagent, many factors affect the specific fuel consumption. However, studies conducted by plant specialists indicate that the use of dehydration reagents saves 2-3 kg of equivalent fuel per ton of alumina (up to 3%) while reducing hydrate moisture by 2%. Taking into account the production of 1.5 million tons / year of alumina, fuel savings will be about 3-4 thousand tons of standard fuel. Thus, knowing the price of fuel equivalent for your company, it is possible to calculate the expected economic effect. Reliably, the amount of capital and operating costs for the use of POLYPAV reagent can be determined by the results of laboratory test and industrial tests.
