Foaming performance evaluation of frother emulsions in the slime flotation: Foamability, foam stability, and foam flow

Frother is a slime flotation agent that is extensively employed. The foaming performance of frother directly affects the separation efficiency of coal and mineral. The conventional dropwise addition of the frothers resulted in reagent waste and flotation performance fluctuation. The frother, which was dispersed into the water in the form of micro-nano oil beads in advance, dramatically avoids waste and fluctuation. We evaluated the foaming performance of frother before and after emulsification in this study. A foam testing system was established based on the improved airflow method. Isopentanol, methyl isobutyl carbinol, and 2-octanol, and their emulsions, were studied for foamability, foam stability, and foam flow. The results demonstrated that frother emulsification enhanced foamability, foam stability, and foam flow, compared to bare frothers. The 2-octanol emulsion presented the most considerable improvement in foamability, best foam stability, a minimum increase in foam flow among the emulsified frothers. The emulsified 2-octanol is the most suitable frother emulsion for slime flotation. The flotation experiment results showed that the emulsified 2-octanol improved the yield of cleaned coal without affecting the ash content of cleaned coal, confirming the emulsification's promotion effect of foaming performance.