Study on the separation of cenospheres from fly ash based on dry separation

Abstract

Cenospheres, as an important value-added product in fly ash, are particles with a hollow spherical structure. Cenospheres are widely used in industry for their unique properties. However, most of the industries use wet separation, which consumes a lot of water and land resources and pollutes the ecological environment, so it is of great significance to study dry separation. In this study, a customized cyclone separator was used to separate cenospheres from fly ash, and the effect of inlet wind speed on the separation efficiency was investigated. The best separation efficiency was achieved at an inlet wind speed of 13 m/s for a fly ash mixture configured with 15% hollow cenospheres, with a Newton's efficiency of 0.687, which is slightly higher than that of the wet method of 0.6. The larger the pore size, the easier the cenospheres could be separated.