Effects of monovalent and divalent ions in coal gasification brine on the froth entrainment and flotation kinetics of anthracite coal

Water plays a critical role in various stages of flotation, which brings a lot of pressure to the flotation processing plants resided in dry areas. In this regard, it will be of significance to explore the feasibility of using wastewater resources in mineral flotation. Coal gasification brine (CGB) that contains a high concentration of salts becomes the subject of interest of this study. In this study, a synthetic CGB solution, which was prepared by adding NaCl, MgCl2, and CaCl2 to ultrapure water based on the composition of salts in a real CGB, was used in the flotation of anthracite coal. The comparison results based on the first-order model showed that flotation in the presence of the synthetic CGB solution gave a higher flotation selectivity (SI =7.086) than that of flotation in ultrapure water (SI=3.545). Water recoveries and average bubble sizes in the froth showed that the addition of the three salt ions (Na+, Mg2+, and Ca2+) was conducive to diminishing the entrainment of gangue materials as a result of the reduction of water reporting to the froth. Additionally, the zeta potentials and induction time measurements indicated that only divalent ions of Ca2+ and Mg2+ significantly compressed the double electrical layer and enhanced the attachment between bubbles and coal particles according to DLVO theory, which was further confirmed by the calculation of interaction energy between coal and bubbles. The findings of the present work may promote the use of CGB as a potential water resource in coal flotation.