Comparison of gas hold-up distribution measurement in a flotation cell using capturing and conductivity techniques

This paper presents and interprets results of experimental measurements of the spatial gas hold-up distribution in a 3 m3 glass rectangular flotation cell at the JKMRC using two different techniques. The gas hold-up device with the capturing technique was developed at the JKMRC and has been used widely in the P9 project1The P9 project is a collaborative mineral processing applied project running by project research teams from JKMRC—University of Queensland, University of Cape Town, and McGill University. The overall project is under coordination of The AMIRA International. The project is strongly industry driven and has been in continuous operation for over 40 years. e the one with conductivity technique was developed at the CSIRO Thermal and Fluids Engineering laboratory at Highett, Victoria, Australia. Measurements were conducted at more than 64 locations in the cell to determine the local gas hold-up distribution in the cell. Since the measurements using the two techniques were conducted at the same locations, the results may be compared with each other. sults indicate that the gas hold-up varies widely inside the flotation cell. The gas hold-up distributions measured by the two techniques are relatively similar except in some locations which can be reasonably explained.