THE EFFECT OF CHEMICAL INTERACTION IN NI(II) RECOVERY BY ION FLOTATION
Mehdi Safari* 1 , Fatemeh S.Hoseinian
2 , Mehdi Irannajad 2
1 Centre for Minerals Research, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town,
Private Bag Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700, South Africa
2 Department of Mining and Metallurgical Eng., Amirkabir University Of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
In this study, the effect of chemical interactions of materials used by ion flotation on the removal of Ni(II) ions from low concentration synthetic wastewater was studied. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and ethylhexadecyldimethylammonium bromide (EHDABr) as collector and methyl isobutyl carbonyl (MIBC) and Dowfroth250 as frother were used. To investigate the effective parameters and interactions of them, 16 experiments including 6 level variables were performed by DX7 software and on the bases of 2-level factorial design. SDS and Dowfroth 250 had appropriate interaction with each other at pH = 3. Recovery of
Ni(II) ions was obtained 69% and 88% at the best condition by ion floatation at Hallimond tube and mechanical cell respectively.
Keywords:
Ion flotation, Ni(II) ions, chemical interactions, wastewaters.
Objective of the paper:
Ion flotation of Nickel - Potential applications to mineral processing and removal of heavy metal ions from wastewaters and environmental application of the flotation process
Results and contribution to the development of mineral processing:
A factorial design was used for recognizing the effective parameters, specially evaluating the effect of collector type, and omitting the parameters with less effect. The response surface design was used for modelling and optimizing ion flotation reagents.
*Mehdi Safari: Centre for Minerals Research, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of
Cape Town, Private Bag Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700, South Africa. Email:
SFRMEH001@myuct.ac.za