A froth flotation apparatus including a tank defining an interior, for holding a slurry, an aerator for aerating a mineral feed stream entering the interior and a system for feeding the aerated mineral stream into a contactor located in the tank.

A water treatment system includes an inlet line, a tank in fluid communication with the inlet line to receive therefrom a fluid flow comprising hydrocarbons and water. The tank includes components configured to separate the fluid flow into a hydrocarbon flow and a water flow, with the water flow including a residual amount of hydrocarbons. A first outlet line is in fluid communication with the tank to discharge therefrom the water flow. A second outlet line is in fluid communication with the tank to discharge therefrom the hydrocarbon flow. A sensor is associated with one of the inlet line, the first outlet line, and the second outlet line, and a valve is associated with the second outlet line. In addition, a controller is configured to determine a property of at least one of the fluid flow, the hydrocarbon flow, and the water flow using the sensor, and to control the valve based upon the property so as to reduce the residual amount of hydrocarbons in the water flow.

A dissolved air floatation apparatus including an ultrafine bubble-containing liquid production device and a dissolved air floatation tank. The ultrafine bubble-containing liquid production device includes a gas-liquid mixing unit and a bubble-containing liquid separation device. The bubble-containing liquid separation device swirls a liquid containing ultrafine bubbles and larger bubbles in a storage tank to concentrate the liquid that contains the ultrafine bubbles and the liquid that contains the larger bubbles to a central part of the swirling flow followed by discharge. A pressurized ultrafine bubble-containing liquid is mixed in a raw liquid containing a subject to be cleansed and is poured into the dissolved air floatation tank to cause a suspended substance and a dissolved component in the raw liquid to be adsorbed on an interface of fine bubbles and be floated in the dissolved air floatation tank to be extracted.

A flotation line for treating mineral ore particles suspended in slurry is disclosed. The flotation line includes a rougher part with at least one rougher flotation cell from which overflow is arranged to flow directly into a cleaner flotation line; and a scavenger part with at least two scavenger flotation cells from which overflow is arranged to flow back into a rougher flotation cell, or into a regrinding step and then into a cleaner flotation line. Underflow from a last scavenger flotation cell is arranged to be removed from the flotation line as tailings. At least 75% of the flotation cells include a mechanical agitator including a system for introducing flotation gas into the flotation cell. At least one of the flotation cells of the flotation line includes a mechanical agitator including a microbubble generator for introducing microbubbles into the slurry.

The water treatment system can have a tank having an elongated shape with two opposite ends and two transversally opposite sides; a flocculation chamber at one of the opposite ends of the tank, the flocculation chamber having at least one treated water inlet and a mixer and a separation chamber adjacent to the flocculation chamber inside the tank, the separation chamber having at least one treated water outlet. A flow straightener system can be provided having a transversally-oriented wall forming an overflow baffle and extending upwardly between the flocculation chamber and the separation chamber, the transversally-oriented wall having an upper edge and a plurality of vanes being vertically and longitudinally oriented, parallel to one another and transversally interspaced from one another along the upper edge of the wall, the vanes extending in at least one of the two transversally opposite sides of the tank.

A device and method for cleaning contaminated solid-liquid mixtures by removing impurities and contaminants from an aqueous paper fiber suspension by flotation. Apparatus includes a first conduit (2) for a liquid, a second conduit (3) for a solid-liquid mixture, a third conduit (4) connecting first and second conduit (2, 3), a Venturi mixing element (5) with cones (7, 11), having small through-opening into chamber (9) which forms a cavity with small through-opening (12, 13) of the cones; the through-opening of first cone (7) connected with first conduit (2) and the rough-opening connected to second conduit (2), the small through-opening (12) of first cone (7) and the non-conical conduit sections arranged in longitudinal axial alignment, a fourth conduit (6) for conveying gas, wherein the fourth conduit (6) opens to the Venturi mixing element (5), and a fractionator arranged downstream of the second conduit (3) for removing the foam produced by flotation.

Coal fines are processed by flotation separation to separate coal particles from ash-forming mineral content particles. Coal fines are mixed water under high shear mixing conditions to form an aqueous slurry of coal fines containing between 15 wt. % and 55 wt. % coal fines. The aqueous slurry is introduced into a coal flotation cell to separate coal particles from ash-forming mineral content particles by flotation separation, wherein the coal fines have a particle size less than 100 m, and more preferably less than 50 m. Bubbles are generated in the coal flotation cell having a bubble size and bubble quantity selected to float the coal particles and to form a coal-froth containing at least 15 wt. % solid particles. The solid particles include coal particles and ash-forming mineral content particles. The coal-froth is collected for further processing.

The present invention provides an apparatus and method for feeding a feed slurry into a device for separating low density particles from the feed slurry. The apparatus comprises a conduit having a slurry inlet, a gas feed inlet, a plurality of hollow tubes and an outlet. The hollow tubes are configured to combine the feed slurry from the slurry inlet and gas from the gas feed inlet. The hollow tubes comprise a porous section to generate bubbles of substantially uniform size into the slurry for adhering to the low density particles. Slurry flows in axially aligned hollow tubes as gas is introduced through the porous sections into the slurry. Alternatively, slurry flows around hollow tubes arranged perpendicular to the conduit longitudinal axis as gas is discharged through the porous sections into the slurry.

An electroflotation apparatus for removing impurities from waste water includes an electrolytic cell for treating the waste water and generating a flock containing the impurities and an outlet pipe having a linear central axis located co-axially with the electrolytic cell for passing the water and flock from the electrolytic cell to a separation area. The outlet pipe comprises a first end connected to the electrolytic cell and having a first diameter, and a second end through which the treated water and flock exit the outlet pipe, the second end having a second diameter. The outlet pipe reduces the turbulence of the treated water from the electrolytic cell before the treated water is passed to the separation area such that aggregation of the flock in the separation area is increased.

A froth flotation arrangement and method for treating mineral ore particles suspended in slurry includes a flotation cell for separating the slurry into an underflow and an overflow and a primary line including at least three flotation cells connected in series, wherein each subsequent flotation cell is arranged to receive the underflow from the previous flotation cell, the flotation cell includes a tank and an impeller within the tank, and the flotation cell includes a gas supply within the tank, the tank includes a volume of at least 200 m3, the flotation cell including a froth collection launder capable to receive the overflow the froth collection launder including a froth overflow lip, the flotation cell having an available froth surface area (A froth), the flotation cell having a pulp area (A pulp), where the pulp area (A pulp) is calculated as an average from the cross sectional areas of the tank at the height (h1) of the impeller. A ratio between a height (h) from a bottom of the tank to the froth overflow lip of the froth collection launder and the diameter (D) of the tank at the height (h1) of the impeller (h/D) is less than 1.5.