Abstract
Ore resources in the mining process form a large number of unmanageable tailings, mostly inhalable fine mineral particles, into the environment will cause serious pollution, and recycling is a precious resource. The cyclone classification provides the possibility for the recovery and exploitation of fine particles, but the recovery and utilization rate of conventional cyclone separation is seriously low, and the performance urgently should be optimized. In the present study, a new type of volute feed was proposed to strengthen the classification and recovery process of fine mineral particles. Combined with numerical simulation and experimental research, the effects of various structural parameters and operating parameters on the flow field distribution, particle motion, and classification performance were systematically examined. The obtained results reveal that the new volute feed structure can effectively reduce the internal turbulence and improve the flow field stability and particle classification efficiency. Compared with the traditional hydrocyclone, the classification efficiency of fine particles with new feed structure increases by 10–18%. Increasing underflow diameter and feed pressure and reducing overflow diameter and feed concentration are also beneficial to lessening classification particle size and enhancing classification performance. The currently achieved outcomes can provide valuable guidelines for further development of novel hydrocyclones.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks Weihai Haiwang Cyclone Co., Ltd. for providing the experimental device and test platform.
Funding
This study is part of a scientific research project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52030001).
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Wenjie Lv: investigation, data curation, writing — original draft; Qi Wei: writing — review and editing, investigation; Yujie Ji: methodology, data curation; Bing Liu: investigation, data curation; Hongpeng Ma: visualization, data curation; Yuan Huang: visualization, data curation; Haitao Huang: resources, investigation; Hualin Wang: supervision, writing — review and editing; Pengbo Fu: conceptualization, writing — review and editing, supervision.
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Lv, ., Wei, Q., Ji, Y. et al. Enhancement of the classification and recovery process of fine mineral particles via a newly developed volute feed hydrocyclone. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 86047–86059 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28516-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28516-7