Review of hydrodynamics and gas dispersion in flotation cells on South African Platinum concentrators

Hydrodynamic and gas dispersion parameters, obtained from industrial flotat ion cells on South African Platinum concentrators, are reviewed in this pap er. Hydrodynamic results show that power intensities are slightly higher th an those typically observed in industrial flotation cells while impeller ti p speeds and Froude numbers are within the range found in industrial cells. Gas dispersion results show that air flow rates, air flow numbers and air flow velocities vary significantly from cell to cell but are within the ran ge typically found in industrial flotation cells. Gas dispersion results al so show reasonably broad variations in bubble size, gas holdup and superfic ial gas velocity, although bubble surface area fluxes are shown to lie with in a fairly narrow range of 50-70 /s. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. AN rights reserved.