Froth Flotation (Sulphide & Oxide)

Froth Flotation (Sulphide & Oxide)

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Chemical product name for a reagent (4 replies)

G
GCHEM
7 years ago
GCHEM 7 years ago

I am looking for a supplier for a reagent but don't know the name of the chemical product for it. Without knowing the chemical product name for the reagent, I could not find the supplier. This reagent is used for beneficiation of tungsten ores. It is composed of oxidized paraffin sodium salts (RCOONa). Who knows the chemical product name  for this type of reagent and the supplier? Thanks!

M
inOr
7 years ago
inOr 7 years ago
2 likes by GCHEM and David

It probably has a name like "alkanoic acid" or the sodium salt of same.  It be called 'sodium palmitate', or 'sodium laurate' or sodium this-'ate' or that-'ate'.  These are sodium salts of fatty acids ( A.K.A. soap.) Like soaps, they act as detergents that render grease and certain other immiscible compounds soluble in or capable of mixing with, water instead of separating like oil in water.   There's a hydrocarbon chain in the molecule (what "paraffin" refers to) and that COO group on one end of the chain.  The former resembles oils and fats that won't mix with water.  The latter has an electric charge in water, so it's very soluble.  The chain is called hydrophobic (water avoiding) and the COO group hydrophilic (water loving).  If the surface of a large molecule or small particle (eg. some kinds of ground up ore) repels water, the soap coats it. exposing the COOH group to the water, which helps disperse the particle, molecule or whatever in water, preventing clumping or other forms of separation of the particles from the water.  I suspect you will be using it during flotation of ores, or in a gravity separation.  Perhaps your compounds are used as frothers - think of what soaps and detergents do to water when you agitate it.

    So, to wrap it up, you could look under alkanoic acids, carboxylic (refering to the COOH group) acids, or the sodium alkanoates, or sodium carboxylates.  If the reagent is supposed to be pure, then it will be named after specific lengths of the hydrocarbon tail - names like laurate, palmitate and stearate, or more technically dodecanoate, hexadecanoate and octadecanoate, respectively.  I'm sorry I can't be more specific with the names, but I suspect the industrial grade you will be buying will be a mixture of the above.  I'm a chemist, not a metallurgical engineer.  Maybe one of the latter can steer you toward the name(s) used in hydrometallurgy, but maybe the above is enough to get you started.

I did a little online research, of the Google and Wikipedia variety, and could find no references to alkanoic acids in the FMC and Celanese sites.  But you seem to be on the right track.  The chemicals they do offer have detergent properties...

G
GCHEM
7 years ago
GCHEM 7 years ago

Thank you very much inOr for answering the question! I appreciate your help on this. It is true that the product is a mixture. This is a reagent with cargoxyl group contains organic acids and their sodium salts. The specifications for this reagent are:
Water <= 30%
Fatty acid >= 50%
Unsaponitiables <= 15%
Free alkali <= 1%

I am contacting the chemical distributors for product described above or similar ones.

Thanks again inOr for the valuable information provided!

P
max skinner
7 years ago
max skinner 7 years ago
1 like by GCHEM

I have considerable experience floating scheelite and the reagents used are stated above, fatty acids. Tall oil, oleic acid, sodium oleate and several derivatives of these. Cytec, has reagents Aero 704 and Aero 726 which are anionic collectors which are what is used. Flomin company and Danafloat also have these type of reagents. We used this type of reagent along with Quebracho for depressing the calcite and sodium silicate to help dispersing. You will have to float off any sulfides first as they will come with the tungsten if you don't, these fatty acid reagents are not very selective, they kind of float everything but the bottom of the cell. You can look up the flow sheet of the Union Carbide Pine Creek tungsten mine, they did it very well.  

G
GCHEM
7 years ago
GCHEM 7 years ago

Thank you very much Max for the valuable information provided! I will contact Flomin and Cytec for more information. Appreciate your help!

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