New Approach to Quartz Coarse Particles Flotation Using Nanobubbles, with Emphasis on the Bubble Size Distribution

This study investigates the influence of bubble size distribution and operational parameters on the flotation behavior of quartz coarse particles. The parameters evaluated during this study include the different bubble size distribution, air flow rate and impeller speed. Experiments were conducted at three different bubble sizes: 110, 171 and 293 nm as d(b)(32). Then, the results were compared with common air bubbles of the conventional flotation process. The bubble size distribution was measured using a laser particle size analyzer (LPSA). Results showed that the recovery of -425 + 106 mu m particles increased in presence of nano bubbles (NBs) up to 25% compared to the conventional flotation. The maximum recovery of 95.59% was obtained using NBs size of 171 nm at the impeller speed of 900 rpm and air flow rate of 301/h. It was also indicated that NBs caused an increasing in flotation recovery for all the samples in any size ranges in comparison with the conventional method.