Today, in the paper industry, flotation deinking is the dominating process
worldwide for the removal of printing inks from recovered paper. It represe
nts the decisive process step as far as improvement of the optical characte
ristics of the fiber stock such as brightness and dirt specks is concerned.
Furthermore, flotation deinking is gaining more and more in importance in
the separation of other contaminants, for example, stickies or fillers and
pigments. This article reports on 'state-of-the-art' flotation deinking as
well as on the newest development trends in this field. It is also apparent
today, just as at the beginning of flotation deinking, that there are obvi
ous parallels to mineral flotation technology. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.
V. All rights reserved.