Project Details
Projekt
Efficient Flotation of Engineered Artificial Minerals from Metallurgical Slags by Exploiting Interaction Scanning (FlotEnAMIS)
Applicant
Dr.-Ing. Martin Rudolph
Subject Area
Mechanical Process Engineering
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 470415970
FlotEnAMIS as part of SPP 2315 is a novel approach of functional atomic force microscopy (AFM) and interfacial engineering to understand the surface properties of engineered artificial minerals (EnAMs) in slags and to find suitable reagent regimes for efficient flotation separation of fine particles of fine-grained slags. Due to the synthetic nature of EnAMs, they often have unknown surface reactions during flotation separation, as the most fundamental previous flotation studies only dealt with natural mineral phases. In addition, there is a wide range of possible variations in composition and crystal morphology associated with slag engineering (slag chemistry and thermal kinetic slag treatment) that influence flotation reactions via altered surface chemistry in previously unknown ways. Therefore, FlotEnAMIS aims to serve as a technology to: (i) thoroughly investigate the separability of individual EnAMs in small laboratory-scale slag samples at the slag engineering stage and provide separation properties that can be implemented in process simulations and digital twins. At the same time, FlotEnAMIS will (ii) enable fundamental studies of surface properties and interactions with flotation reagents resulting from variations in the phase properties of the artificial minerals, which will (iii) contribute to the overall scientific understanding of flotation and underlying physical and chemical principles through direct observation of selective hydrophobization. Another advantage is (iv) FlotEnAMIS is able to map the separability feature of flotation on the exact same samples used for automated mineralogy (MLA), where the mineral phases and their digestion properties are recorded. Therefore, FlotEnAMIS will complement the information used for slag component properties for predictive mineral processing within the general geometallurgical approach followed in different projects of SPP2315. It is understood that at the early stage of slag design (chemism and thermokinetics), far too large quantities of representative samples would be required for typical batch laboratory flotation testing, typically at least at the pilot scale of slag production. Therefore, a modern micro-scale approach is required, which could also revolutionize the screening of flotation reagents in general. The second phase of FlotEnAMIS will continue the work on lithium-containing slags and consider the wider slag system of tantalum-containing fayalite slags, i.e. in the field of oxide mineral flotation and its typical flotation reagents, the relevant electrical double layer and hydrophobic interactions.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
