Review of hydrodynamics and gas dispersion in flotation cells on South African platinum concentrators

Hydrodynamic and gas dispersion parameters, obtained from industrial flotation cells on South African Platinum concentrators, are reviewed in this paper. Hydrodynamic results show that power intensities are slightly higher than those typically observed in industrial flotation cells while impeller tip speeds and Froude numbers are within the range found in industrial cells. Gas dispersion results show that air flow rates, air flow numbers and air flow velocities vary significantly from cell to cell but are within the range typically found in industrial flotation cells. Gas dispersion results also show reasonably broad variations in bubble size, gas holdup and superficial gas velocity, although bubble surface area fluxes are shown to lie within a fairly narrow range of 50–70/s.