Investigation of spherical oil agglomeration properties of celestite

In this study, concentration of celestite particles was investigated by using oil agglomeration. For this purpose, effects of operating parameters were investigated, and zeta potential measurements and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR) analyses have also been carried out. In the experiments, effects of operating parameters such as pH, stirring speed, amount of Na oleate as a anionic type collector and kerosene as a bridging liquid, solid ratio, agglomeration time, collector stirring time, conditioning time, and amount of EDTA were investigated to obtain optimum conditions. Zeta potential measurements were carried out for various pH values and amounts of Na oleate. FTIR analyses were investigated to determine the adsorption type of Na oleate on celestite surface. By evaluation of the experimental results, optimum oil agglomeration conditions of celestite were determined as follows: pH 7, stirring speed 1500 rpm, amount of kerosene 100 1/t, amount of Na oleate 10 kg/t, solid ratio 5 wt%, conditioning time 5 min, collector stirring time 1 min, agglomeration time 5 min, and amount of EDTA 1.0 kg/t. In the optimum conditions, celestite was concentrated with recovery of 89.47 wt%. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.