Selection of recovery zone height in flotation column design

Flotation column design is an area of reactor engineering that has not attracted much research interest in chemical engineering. As a result, key design and scale-up parameters (e.g. column height) continue to be based on such factors as building and crane rail heights, both of which are not related to the particle collection process [M. Ounpuu and R. Tremblay, Investigation into the effect of column height on the 1200 mm diameter column at Matagami, Proc. Int. Conf. on Column Flotation, Sudbury, Ont., Canada, June 2-6, 1991, Vol. 1, pp 303-316, J. B. Reis, Jr, and A. E. C. Peres, Industrial application of flotation columns in the concentration of a sulfide ore at Mineracao Manati Ltd. - Brazil, Proc. Int. Conf. on Column Flotation, Sudbury, Ont., Canada, June 2-6, 1991, Vol. 2, pp 525-537]. It is shown that the use of analogy with chemical kinetics in column design is also not correct. By using analogy with interface mass transfer, a new approach to flotation column design was presented [M. T. Ityokumbul, A new modelling approach to flotation column design. Miner. Eng., 5 (1992) 585-593]. This paper describes the application of this technique in the optimal selection of column height. Literature data from a variety of applications (coal and mineral flotation in columns of different sizes) are used to validate the procedure.