ACE hydrocyclone: A fast froth cyclonic beneficiation technology for fine and ultrafine minerals

Froth flotation technology is the backbone of the mineral-processing industry, where minerals are concentrated by selective separation, either by direct or indirect flotation. In direct flotation, useful minerals are conditioned to become hydrophobic (water repellant) and attach to air bubbles while impurities (nonuseful particles) remain in water. The hydrophobic particles are transported by air bubbles to the top froth (foam) layer in a flotation tank that can be removed as a concentrate. There are many factors that control this selective separation process, such as particle degree of hydrophobicity, particle size, mass loading, air holdup and bubble size distribution. Turbulent fluctuation of the slurry in the tank is another important factor that controls the collision rates between particles and bubbles, and hence attachment rates. The turbulent fluctuations are measured by the local distribution of turbulent dissipation rates. Conventional flotation machines are restrained by the residence time of the slurry — about three to five minutes — which results in a large footprint and limits the capacity of flotation plants. The designers of conventional flotation machines try to reduce the footprint of the flotation tank by scaling up the flotation machines to increase plant throughput. The scale-up process reduces the specific power consumption and the local distribution of shear rates and turbulence dissipation rates. This scaleup results in a larger mean bubble size and lower particle-bubble attachment rates A legitimate question can be raised here: Is it possible to further increase the tank size of conventional flotation machines or increase the throughput of a flotation cell to meet increasing future demands for froth flotation (Mesa and Brito-Parada, 2019)? To answer the first part of this question, it can be stated that the tank size of large-scale flotation machines has a cap of 600 m3 (21,200 cu ft). Larger flotation tanks are inefficient, and a major hurdle to commercialization is the boiling phenomenon due to poor bubble transport in the pulp phase. The boiling phenomenon creates a nonhomogeneous distribution of air superficial velocity, Jg, and separation rates deteriorate significantly for fine and ultrafine particles. To recover fine and ultrafine particles, the second approach is to increase flotation rates by increasing the throughput of the flotation device. In this approach, an efficient and more precise bubble generation process is used to produce bubble size distribution of a similar size range to the fine mineral particles to be recovered. The attachment of fine particles and bubbles shall be enhanced by increasing the relative velocity between particles and bubbles. Narmer-engsim has therefore developed a fast ACE hydrocyclone in which air bubbles are generated inside at the walls of the hydrocyclone. The feed rate of air and slurry can control the bubble size range. This new concept combines the concept of froth flotation with cyclonic separation to reduce the residence time of mineral particles to one second and achieve high attachment rates between fine particles and bubbles. The new technology relies on creating a centrifugal field instead of gravity in the selective separation process. This new technology uses a double-volute (DV)-aerated hydrocyclone. The design of this hydrocyclone is the result of highfidelity computational-fluid-dynamics (CFD) simulations to determine the optimum flow rates of air and slurry. The simulations provide details of the hydrodynamics of the flow field in the hydrocyclone. Previous technology This section reviews the previous use of the concept of cyclonic froth separation and the hurdles that had obstructed its commercialization. The concept of cyclonic froth separation had been studied by Miller (1981a), for which he developed the air-sparged hydrocyclone (ASH). Miller (1981b) used a porous tube in his device to feed air to the hydrocyclone. However, the use of a porous tube between the air chamber and slurry chamber limits the lifetime of ASH hydrocyclones to approximately 20 hours of continuous operation (Miller et al., 2001). The malfunction of the ASH hydrocyclone occurs due to the accumulation of fine particles inside the pores of the porous tube, which results in the formation of a crud layer on the inner surface of the tube. Despite this serious problem that limits the commercialization of the ASH hydrocyclone, many publications show the superiority of the ASH hydrocyclone over conventional flotation machines. The theory and experimental work of Miller and Van Camp (1981) show that froth separation in a centrifugal field (cyclonic froth separation) provides a much higher capacity than froth flotation machines. The retention time in an ASH system is about 0.1 to 0.5 second, while froth flotation machines have retention times of about 180 to 300 seconds (Miller et al., 1988). The application of cyclonic froth separation technology has substantially improved the recovery of fine coal, copper porphyry ore (Kinneberg and Miller, 1983) and low-grade placer gold (Miller et al., 1986). The use of cyclonic froth separation has been studied for other nonmineral applications such as oilwater separation (Miller and Hupka, 1983), pulp deinking (Chamblee and Greenwood, 1991) and wastewater treatment (Miller and Hupka, 1993b). As demonstrated by these publications, ASH hydrocyclones have outstanding performance, but their air-feed systems (the main component) suffer from plugging problems. ACE hydrocyclone The ACE hydrocyclone was designed by conducting a series of CFD large-eddy simulations of two-phase flow (water and air). As shown in Fig. 1, the design of the DVaerated hydrocyclone consists of an inlet volute that forces slurry to swirl inside the hydrocyclone and exit through the bottom volute, to recove the hydraulic energy and prevent the bypass of air bubbles to an underflow pipe. The inlet flow rate of slurry is controlled by an inlet valve, and the overflow split ratio of slurry is controlled by an underflow valve at the bottom exit. To prevent the problem of clogging of the air-feeding system, we developed a new airfeeding system that consists of a cascading set of overlapping vertical air nozzles around the wall of the cylindrical part of the cyclone. The nozzles are designed to feed air in the same tangential direction of swirling slurry. The width of these nozzles is carefully designed to allow the flow of air from the air chamber to the hydrocyclone and prevent the backflow of slurry to the air chamber. CFD simulations of two-phase flow in the ACE hydrocyclone predict the inlet feed pressure, water swirling thickness along the axial direction, and water overflow split ratio (that is, water recovery from the overflow pipe). A computer-aided design (CAD) model for the ACE hydrocyclone was developed and used to generate a computational mesh consisting of nearly 6 million hexagonal elements. Figure 2 shows the computational mesh of the hydrocyclone. The inlet boundary conditions are implemented as inlet velocity. Water-inlet velocity is specified as different values in the range of 2 to 4 m/s (6.5 to 13 fps). These values achieve inlet flow rates in the range of 0.3 to 0.67 L/s (5 to 10 gpm). The air feed rate in this simulation is 100 L/min. The boundary conditions for the overflow and underflow ports are specified as opening and pressure-outlet, respectively. The large-eddy simulation (LES) approach with dynamic coefficient modeling was used to model turbulent fluctuations, where large turbulent scales are resolved and subgrid scales are modeled. The air is fed near the cylindrical wall of the hydrocyclone as a mass source to mimic the air feed instead of resolving the flow through the air nozzles. The air in these simulations is modeled as a dispersed phase with uniform bubble size (bubble diameter, db = 0.1 mm). The results show that the air column has a nearly conical shape with the base near the overflow pipe and the apex anchoring on the bottom air base (Fig. 3a). In other words, the thickness of the water layer at the bottom near the air base is larger than the water layer at the top of the hydrocyclone. This upside-down conical shape of the air column is due to the decay of swirling velocity of water as part of the flow is gradually leaving the hydrocyclone through the overflow pipe and frictional losses at the walls. This means that the high swirling velocity at the top of the hydrocyclone increases the pressure gradient in the radial direction and thus reduces the thickness of the swirling layer. The low swirling velocity near the bottom of the hydrocyclone reduces the pressure gradient in the radial direction and hence increases the thickness of the swirling layer. The large thickness of the water layer near the air base prevents the bypass of air bubbles to the underflow. The distribution of air volume fraction (AVF) in the ACE hydrocyclone illustrates the shape of the air column, as shown by Figs. 3a and 3b. The CFD results show that the thickness of the slurry swirling layer is small at the top of ACE hydrocyclone whereas the tangential velocity is high in the range of 3 to 4 m/s (10 to 13 fps). The swirling velocity decays to 2 m/s (6.5 fps) near the bottom volute. Figure 1 Schematic representation of the DV-aerated hydrocyclone. Figure 2 Computational mesh of the ACE hydrocyclone. Figure 3 Air distribution in the ACE hydrocyclone: (a) air column and (b) air volume fraction. This velocity distribution results in a conical shape for the air column that can be illustrated by the isosurface of 60 percent mean air volume fraction (Fig. 3a). The thickness of the swirling layer is in the range of 2 to 3 mm near the top volute and nearly 10 mm near the bottom air base. The air column is stable, and the simulations show that the diameter and depth of the overflow pipe control the separation efficiency as well. The simulations show that for a feed rate of 30 L/min, the air flow rate is nearly 150 L/min and produces an overflow split ratio (water recovery) of nearly 20 percent while the underflow split ratio is 80 percent. The predicted inlet pressure at this flow rate is 9 kPa, about 1.3 psi, while the underflow and overflow pressures equal atmospheric pressure. Experimental testing Experimental testing of the ACE hydrocyclone was done in-house to evaluate the performance of the new air-feeding system in the ACE hydrocyclone and determine the recovery rate for fine mineral particles. The parts of a 5-cm (2-in.) ACE hydrocyclone were fabricated using computer numerical control (CNC) machining and assembled in a laboratory. A mobile unit that carries the hydrocyclone, slurry pump, air blower and feed tank, flow meters and pressure gauges was designed. Figure 4 shows an image of this mobile unit. As shown in Fig. 4, the inlet flow of slurry is measured by a float-type flow meter, and the pressure is measured at the inlet section of the hydrocyclone by a pressure gauge. The air flow rate is measured by another float-type flow meter installed right before the inlet to the air chamber. The air pressure is monitored by the pressure gauge that is installed right before the inlet of the air chamber. The slurry is pumped to the hydrocyclone, and the flow rate is controlled by a gate valve on the feedline. The air flow rate is controlled by another ball valve that is installed downstream of the air blower. The pressure of air at an inlet section of the air chamber is monitored to assess the performance of the new air-feeding system that is the main where the particle size range is less than 40 μm. Therefore, a slurry of ultrafine coal (10 percent mass loading) was prepared to challenge the air-feeding system. The system is designed such that air is pumped through the system before running the slurry pump because air flow prevents the backflow of slurry into the air chamber. The air flow was controlled such that the air flow meter reading is nearly 100 L/ min (3.5 cfm). The system was kept running for 24 hours continuously. During this continuous operation, the pressure gauge at the feed inlet and air pressure gauge at the air inlet to air chamber was monitored. The air pressure gauge showed constant pressure of nearly 9.65 kPa throughout the course of the experiment. The constant pressure of the air chamber indicates that there are no signs of the clogging problems that usually happen in the ASH hydrocyclone. in Fig. 4, the inlet flow of slurry is measured by a float-type flow meter, and the pressure is measured at the inlet section of the hydrocyclone by a pressure gauge. The air flow rate is measured by another float-type flow meter installed right before the inlet to the air chamber. The air pressure is monitored by the pressure gauge that is installed right before the inlet of the air chamber. The slurry is pumped to the hydrocyclone, and the flow rate is controlled by a gate valve on the feedline. The air flow rate is controlled by another ball valve that is installed downstream of the air blower. The pressure of air at an inlet section of the air chamber is monitored to assess the performance of the new air-feeding system that is the main new component in the ACE hydrocyclone. Air-feed clogging test. The first target of the experimental testing is to evaluate the performance of the air-feeding system and its ability to prevent clogging problems in situations the particle size range is less than 40 μm. Therefore, a slurry of ultrafine coal (10 percent mass loading) was prepared to challenge the air-feeding system. The system is designed such that air is pumped through the system before running the slurry pump because air flow prevents the backflow of slurry into the air chamber. The air flow was controlled such that the air flow meter reading is nearly 100 L/ min (3.5 cfm). The system was kept running for 24 hours continuously. During this continuous operation, the pressure gauge at the feed inlet and air pressure gauge at the air inlet to air chamber was monitored. The air pressure gauge showed constant pressure of nearly 9.65 kPa throughout the course of the experiment. The constant pressure of the air chamber indicates that there are no signs of the clogging problems that usually happen in the ASH hydrocyclone. Figure 4 Mobile ACE unit. Figure 5 Effect of air flow rate on water recovery. Figure 6 Effect of underflow valve opening on water recovery. Hydrodynamic characterization. The hydrodynamic performance of the ACE hydrocyclone was investigated to determine the overflow water recovery (split percentage) as functions of feed rate, air flow rate, underflow opening and frother concentrations. The first set of tests were conducted using tap water without adding frother, and with the underflow valve 100 percent open. As shown in Fig. 5, the overflow water recovery has a nearly linear relationship with the feed rate. The effect of increasing the air flow rate on water recovery is nearly negligible for feed flow rates less than 20 L/min. The split ratio decreases as the air flow rate increases at air flow rates in the range of 20 to 40 L/ min. Increasing the air flow rate reduces the thickness of the swirling layer near the top part of the ACE hydrocyclone and increases the average diameter of the air column. This reduction in the swirling layer thickness increases the swirling velocity and reduces the water flow rate through the overflow pipe. ACE hydrocyclone is fitted with a gate valve at the exit section of the underflow. This valve was installed to control the back pressure at the exit of underflow. We measured the water recovery for a 100-percent-open valve, 75-percent-open valve and 50-percent-open valve. The values of water recovery (that is, the split ratio) through the overflow pipe are represented in Fig. 6. The experimental results show a linear relationship between feed rate and water recovery. The increase of underflow pressure by partially closing the underflow valve (0, 25 and 50 percent closures) increases the water recovery from the overflow pipe. Figure 7 Effect of froth concentration on water recovery for underflow valve opening of 75 percent. Figure 8 Effect of froth concentration on water recovery for underflow valve opening of 50 percent. Figure 9 Feed pressure versus feed rate. Figure 10 Air inlet pressure versus feed rate. The effect of frother dosage on the amount of water recovery by the overflow pipe is shown in Fig. 7 for an underflow valve opening of 75 percent. The amount of water recovery is measured for different feed rates at two different dosages of the methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) frother (35 and 70 ppm). The water recovery varies with the feed rate of water in a linear fashion. The addition of frother to the feed water slightly reduces the water recovery. However, the addition of frother has a significant effect on water recovery for an underflow valve opening of 50 percent, as shown in Fig. 8. The frother reduces the surface tension between air and water interfaces and reduces the mean bubble size. The effect of frother dosage on water recovery is nearly negligible for 100 and 75 percent underflow valve openings where the thickness of the swirling layer is small. For the case of 50 percent underflow valve opening, the swirling layer is thicker and the air bubble size has a significant effect on water recovery. This means larger bubbles (low frother dosage) induces more water through the overflow pipe. The feed pressures of water and air were measured for different flow rates, and the experimental measurement data are shown in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. The air flow rate is maintained at 200 L/min. The two figures show that the pressures have quadratic relationships with the water feed rate. The water feed pressure in Fig. 9 is fitted and given by the following relationship: where Q denotes feed rate (L/min) and Pf denotes inlet pressure (kPa). The feed pressure can be used to calculate the hydraulic feed power in kilowatts (kW): For a feed flow rate of 40 L/min, the estimated hydraulic power of the feed is nearly Effect W. The air inlet pressure in Fig. 10 can be fitted by the following equation: The power consumption of the air blower is a function of the feed pressure and air flow rate. The hydraulic power consumption of feed air can be determined in horsepower using the following equation: where Qa is the air flow rate in cubic feet per minute (cfm) and Pa is the air inlet pressure in pound per square inch (psi). The estimated air power is nearly 57 W. The total consumed power of the ACE hydrocyclone is nearly 75 W for a feed flow rate of 40 L/min (about 10 gpm). The residence time of the ACE hydrocyclone is on the order of one second. In order to compare its power consumption with that of one of the well-known flotation machines, such as Wemco-300 m3, the power consumption per unit volume of treated water in a period equal to the residence time of a Wemco flotation machine was estimated. The residence time of a Wemco-300 m3 flotation machine is nearly three minutes (180 seconds). In this time period, a 2-in. ACE hydrocyclone can process a volume of 120 L. The specific power consumption is nearly equal to 0.625 kW/m3. The specific power consumption of the Wemco-300 m3 is about 0.5 kW/m3. The specific power consumption of a smallscale, 2-in. ACE hydrocyclone is nearly equal to the specific power consumption of a large-scale Wemco- 300 m3. Ultrafine coal separation test. We tested the ACE hydrocyclone for fine/ ultrafine coal concentration. The process flow diagram is shown in Fig. 11. We used a coal sample from Keystone Filler Coal Co. with particle size of dp < 40 µm, as shown in Fig. 12. The results of the analysis of this coal sample are presented in Table 1. The coal sample was used to make a slurry with mass loading of 10 percent. To measure the separation efficiency, we added 2 lb of 100-mesh hydrophilic silica to the slurry in a 50-gal conditioning tank. We added MIBC frother (from Flottec) at a rate of 0.5 lb/t and kerosene as a collector at the same rate. The slurry was then mixed with the reagents for three minutes. An AMT 07ES05C-3P solids handling end suction centrifugal pump was used. The air was supplied using a Gast 1023 motor mounted rotary vane blower. The inlet valve was adjusted for slurry feed rates of 5,10, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 L/min. The feed rate of air was determined to be 5.5 standard cubic feet per minute (scfm), or nearly 150 L/min. The recovery of coal mass varies with the feed rate of slurry as shown in 13. The analysis of the concentrate shows that the recovery of coal is nearly 85 percent and separation efficiency is nearly 99 precent at a feed rate of 40 L/min. We attribute this high separation efficiency to the large difference between the size ranges of silica particles (100 μm < dp < 150 μm) and coal particles (5 μm < dp < 30 μm). The froth layer in the overflow tank has a highly stable structure, as shown in Fig. 14. Figure 11 Process flow diagram of ultrafine coal separation test. Figure 12 Microscopic picture of the coal sample. Figure 13 Coal mass recovery. Table 1 Results of ultimate analysis of the coal sample. Oil-in-water emulsion separation test. We tested the ACE hydrocyclone to test its capability to separate a stable oil-in-water emulsion. In these experiments, we used a crude oil sample as shown in Fig. 15a. The oil-in-water emulsions were prepared using the following procedure: Sodium hydroxide (10 g) was added to 150 L of water. Oleic acid (100 mL) was added to 300 mL of TX crude oil and stirred for 20 minutes. The oil/oleic acid mixture was added to the water solution, and the solution was stirred for three hours continuously using an industrial mixer. The resultant emulsion has oil concentration of 2,400 ppm, as shown in Fig. 15b. The frother was added at a dosage of 20 ppm and mixed for three minutes before the start of the experiment (that is, the conditioning time was nearly 3 minutes). The air flow rate was maintained at 7 cfm (200 L/min), and the feed rate at 55 L/min. The feed pressure gauge reading was 7.5 psi, and the air inlet pressure reading was 4 psi. The overflow recovery was nearly 30 L/ (that is, water recovery was approximately 55 percent). The overflow was received in the overflow tank where the froth layer formed at the surface, and the cleaned water was drained from the bottom of the tank while the oil froth remained stable at the surface. The overflow tank had no air feed and was used only to receive the overflow stream. Figure 14 Froth concentrate of coal. Figure 15 (a) TX crude oil sample and (b) 2,400 ppm oil-in-water emulsion before experiment. The experiment showed a shallow cloud of micro oil drops and micro air bubbles in the overflow tank (Fig. 16a). This shallow cloud had a residence time of nearly one second. The froth layer formed at the top of the tank, as shown in Fig. 16b. Our experiment of crude oil-in-water emulsion relies on the use of the ACE hydrocyclone and a shallow flotation process in the overflow tank. The feed rate was nearly 55 L/min, and the overflow rate was nearly 30 L/ min. The underflow stream was returned to the feed tank. Therefore, the net throughput of this experiment was equal to the flow rate of water to the overflow (25 L/min). Beeby and Nicol (1993) conducted separation experiments of oil-in-water emulsions using an ASH hydrocyclone. Their experiments’ data have been investigated statistically to determine the optimum operating parameters of an ASH hydrocyclone to achieve maximum separation efficiency. The optimum separation efficiency was achieved for a 50 percent overflow recovery of water, and the air flow rate was nearly equal to three times the water feed rate. We found similar results in our experiment using the ACE hydrocyclone. However, Beeby and Nicol (1993) in their experiments did not use the shallow flotation process in the overflow tank. In our experiment, we applied the shallow flotation process. This combination of ACE hydrocyclone and shallow flotation system creates a stable froth layer and achieves high separation efficiency at the surface, as shown in Fig. 16b. The clean water was drained from the bottom of the overflow tank at the same flow rate as from the overflow pipe (that is, steady state). A sample of the cleaned water is shown in Fig. 17. The turbidity of the clean water was measured using a turbidity meter, shown in Fig. 17b, and the reading was 68 NTU (22.6 ppm). The separation efficiency was calculated using the following equation: The separation efficiency for this system is nearly 99 percent. The rate constant of the ACE hydrocyclone can be calculated using the following relationship: In our experiment, the total residence time is nearly two seconds and oil recovery is 99 percent. The residence time is the sum of the residence times inside the ACE hydrocyclone and in the shallow cloud in the overflow tank (steady-state system). We found that the rate constant of this system is 49.5 1/s. The rate constant for the Wemco machine is nearly 0.55 1/s, assuming the same recovery (99 percent) and residence time of 3 min. From these numbers, the flotation rate constant of this oil separation experiment is nearly 100 times that of the Wemco machine. Figure 16 Froth characteristics in the overflow tank: (a) shallow cloud and (b) froth layer. Figure 17 (a) Drained clean water sample and (b) turbidity meter showing a reading of 68 NTU (22.6 ppm). Summary An ACE hydrocyclone has been designed using high-fidelity CFD simulations of twophase flow, where the hydrocyclone contains an inlet volute, an exit volute and a cylindrical body. The CFD results show that the thickness of a swirling layer varies along the axial direction (thin at the top of the hydrocyclone and thick near the bottom volute). This structure of swirling layers produces an upside-down conical structure of air inside the ACE hydrocyclone. Both CFD simulations and experiments show that water recovery rates depend on the water feed rate. The predicted inlet pressure for CFD simulations of 30 L/ min equals 9 kPa, and the overflow split ratio is nearly equal to 20 percent. The experimental value of inlet pressure at this feed rate is equal to 9.65 kPa, and the overflow split ratio is nearly equal to 25 percent. The overflow split ratio/water recovery percentage was investigated experimentally. The experimental data show a linear relationship between the overflow rate and feed rate. The main component of the ACE hydrocyclone is the air-feeding system. We tested the air-feeding system in a continuous run (of approximately 24 hours) to evaluate its performance for a continuous flow of 10 percent mass loading slurry of ultrafine coal. The air inlet pressure remained constant during the course of the experiment, indicating no signs of clogging. The experimental data of ultrafine coal separation show 85 percent recovery of coal mass at feed rates of 35 to 40 L/min. The experiments show that the rate constant is nearly 100 times that of a Wemco machine. This very high rate constant of the ACE technology indicates that its footprint is much smaller than those of tank flotation technologies. The ACE hydrocyclone was tested for the deoiling of oil-in-water emulsions. The turbidity of the cleaned water from the overflow tank was measured as 68 NTU (22.6 ppm). Separation efficiency of nearly 99 percent was achieved, and the rate constant was nearly 50 1/s. References Mesa and Brito-Parada, 2019. Scale-up in froth flotation: A state-of-the-art review. Separation and purification technology 210, 950-962. Miller, J.1-L, 1981a. Air-sparged hydrocyclone and method. US Patent No. 4279743. Miller, J.D., 1981b. Concept of an air-sparged hydrocyclone. In: Proc. of SME/AIME Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. Miller, J., Wang, X., Yin, D. and Lu Y., 2001. Air-sparged hydrocyclone flotation technology for efficient recovery of Florida Phosphate minerals. Final report, no. 02-098-156, FIBR. Van Camp, M.C., 1981. Development of the air-sparged hydrocyclone for flotation in a centrifugal field. M.Sc. Thesis, University of Utah. Miller, J.D., Ye, Y., Pacquet, E. and Baker, M.W., 1988b. The air-sparged hydrocyclone for fine coal flotation. In: Proc. of MINExpo International’88, Session Papers Vol. I: Technical, American Mining Congress, Chicago, pp. 1-16. Kinneberg, D.J. and Miller, J.D., 1983. Copper sulfide flotation in an air-sparged hydrocyclone. USBM Final Report on Grant G 1115492, University of Utah. Miller, J.D., Misra, M. and Gopalakrishnan, S., 1986. Gold flotation from Colorado River sand with the air-sparged hydrocyclone. Miner. Metall. Process., 3(3): 145-148. Miller, J.D. and Hupka, J., 1983. Water de-oiling in an air-sparged hydrocyclone. Filtr. Sep., (July/Aug): 279-282. Chamblee, J.W. and Greenwood, B.F., 1991. Evaluation of high throughput, high consistency deinking technology. In: Proc. of 1991 TAPPI Pulping Conference, FL. Miller, J.D., Ye, Y. and Hupka, J., 1993b. The potential of air-sparged hydrocyclone flotation in environmental technology. In: J.P. Hager (Editor), Proc. of TMS Annual Meeting, pp. 123-135. Beeby J.P. and Nicol S.K., 1993. Concentration of oil-in-water emulsion using the air-sparged hydrocyclone. Filtr. Sep., (March/April): 141-148.

ACE hydrocyclone: A fast froth cyclonic beneficiation technology for fine and ultrafine minerals

Authored by:
Hassan Fayed

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