Abstract

Flotation of fine particles from binarymixture by ionic microbubbles

Author(s): Rajeev Parmar, Subrata Kumar Majumder, Pallab Ghosh

This article reportsthe separation efficiency of fine particles by ionic microbubbles (IMB). IMBs were generated using a microbubble generator. Thediameter of the bubbles was in the range of 30-50 ìm. Acationic surfactant Cetyl TrimethylAmmonium Bromide (CTAB), has been used to separate zinc oxideparticle (2.2 ìm particle diameter) from a mixture of zinc oxide and silica powder (11 ìm particle diameter). Agglom-eration between particles of different charge is a potential problem. However, the initial results indicate a good separation using a novel system. The results are compared with conventional batch scale flotation.