| abstract |
Methods of increasing the rate of separating hydrophobic and hydrophilic particles by flotation have been developed. They are based on using appropriate reagents to enhance the hydrophobicity of the particles to be floated, so that they can be more readily collected by the air bubbles used in flotation. The hydrophobicity-enhancing reagents include low HLB surfactants, naturally occurring lipids, modified lipids, and hydrophobic polymers. These methods can greatly increase the rate of flotation for the particles that are usually difficult to float, such as ultrafine particles, coarse particles, middlings, and the particles that do not readily float in the water containing large amounts of ions derived from the particles. In addition, new collectos for the flotation of phosphate minerals are disclosed. |