Measurement of gas holdup characteristics in two-phase column flotation by electrical capacitance volume tomography

Abstract

Abstract Electrical capacitance volume tomography measured the gas holdup in two-phase column flotation. The purpose was to characterize gas holdup and understand its relation to flow patterns as a function of the types and doses of frothers. Experiments were conducted using laboratory-scale column flotation cells with dimensions of 5 ×125 cm. The superficial gas velocities in the experiment were 0.5–4 cm s−1 with an interval of 0.5 cm/s. Methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) and Oreprep F-583-OZ (Oreprep) were used as frothers at 5–40 ppm doses. The results showed that the difference between the lowest and highest gas holdup in the bubbly flow regime was ∼0.07, and the transition from the bubbly to churn-turbulent flow occurred at a superficial gas velocity of 2 c m /s .