Abstract
Hydraulic transport of fines up to the surface of flotation cell was supposed to be a mechanism of fines fractionation through the froth-flotation. Efficient fractionation of fines means efficient skimming out of flotation rejects as much as possible with least long fiber loss. The selectivity of fines fractionation was found to be mainly affected by long fibers flocculation degree in this study. Lack of sufficient flocculation of long fibers could lead to extensive loss of long fibers. It was also found that higher flotation flux caused higher flotation reject as well as the increase of long fiber loss, but did not affect the fine content ratio in the flotation reject. We controlled the flotation flux and the stock consistency, and chose a cationic polymer to maximize the flocculation of long fibers and to increase the amount of flotation reject. The highest efficiency of fines fractionation was obtained at 1.3% of stock consistency and at 100L/min of flotation flux in our experimental set up. The cationaic polymer we chose was found to be very effective in fiber flocculation and flotation froth stabilization. New definitions of fractionation efficiency were introduced in this study to compare the results more clearly.