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An investigation of coal flotation using nanoparticles as a collector

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 International Journal of Coal Preparation and Utilization

ISSN: 1939-2699 (Print) 1939-2702 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gcop20

An investigation of coal flotation using

nanoparticles as a collector

Maoyan An, Yinfei Liao, Xiahui Gui, Yifan Zhao, Yucheng He, Zechen Liu &
Qingteng Lai

To cite this article: Maoyan An, Yinfei Liao, Xiahui Gui, Yifan Zhao, Yucheng He, Zechen
Liu & Qingteng Lai (2017): An investigation of coal flotation using nanoparticles as a collector,
International Journal of Coal Preparation and Utilization, DOI: 10.1080/19392699.2017.1402767

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/19392699.2017.1402767

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COAL PREPARATION AND UTILIZATION
https://doi.org/10.1080/19392699.2017.1402767

An investigation of coal flotation using nanoparticles as a

collector
Maoyan Ana, Yinfei Liaob, Xiahui Guib, Yifan Zhaoa, Yucheng Hea, Zechen Liua,
and Qingteng Laia
a
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, P.R.
China; bNational Engineering Research Center of Coal Preparation and Purification, China University of Mining
and Technology, Xuzhou, P.R. China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The article discusses the application of hydrophobic polystyrene nano- Received 17 August 2017
particles as a collector for coal flotation, aiming to demonstrate the Accepted 6 November 2017
possibility of sorting coal fines with nanoparticles. The results of the KEYWORDS
flotation tests conducted in this study show that a clean concentrate Coal flotation; collector;
was successfully obtained from floating high ash coal fines by using nanoparticle; hydrophobicity
nanoparticles. The nanoparticles significantly increased the combustible
recovery while kept the concentrate ash content at a low level. Contact
angle measurements and electron probe microanalyzer micrographs
indicate that the deposition of hydrophobic nanoparticle on coal surface
increased the hydrophobicity and microscale roughness of coal particles,
which was beneficial to flotation process. Although the current nanopar-
ticles used were effective for coal flotation, the dosage consumption was
relatively high due to the coagulation of nanoparticles. This suggests that
it is important to increase nanoparticle colloidal stability and improve
nanoparticle deposition selectivity for practical applications.

Introduction
Coal is a main fossil fuel used in China, accounting for almost 70% of primary energy
consumption which plays an important role in the development of social and economic
development (Pan et al. 2017; Xing et al. 2016). Every year, nearly 200 million tons of fine
coal (<0.5mm) are generated during the coal washing process in China. The recovery of
organic matter present in fine coal could yield an important energy source offering
environmental and economic benefits (Ramos-Escobedo et al. 2016).
Froth flotation is an effective separation method for fine coal cleaning and upgrading
that is based on the differences in surface hydrophobicity between organic matter and
mineral matter (Gui et al. 2016). Various types of clays, including kaolinite, illite and
montmorillonite, are considered as the major components of ash-forming mineral matters
(Aplan, 1997). The presence of these fine clays in the raw coal poses a challenge to fine
coal separation (Xu et al. 2003). Some of the difficulties are identified as slime coatings,
which hinder the bubble-particle attachment and increase the reagent consumption
(Khodakarami, Molatlhegi, and Alagha 2017). There have been many studies conducted
to investigate the negative effects caused by fine clay particles in coal flotation (Forbes,

CONTACT Yinfei Liao ruiyin@126.com National Engineering Research Center of Coal Preparation and Purification,
China University of Mining and Technology, No.1 University Road, Xuzhou 221116, Jiangsu, P.R. China.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/gcop.
© 2017 Taylor & Francis
2 M. AN ET AL.

Davey, and Smith 2014; Khodakarami, Molatlhegi, and Alagha 2017; Liu and Peng 2015;
Wang and Peng 2013; Xu et al. 2003). These studies showed that the slime coatings were
justified by electrostatic attraction between negatively charged coal particles and positively
charged edges of clay particles. The deleterious roles of slime coatings were related to the
hydrophilic nature of clay fine particles that made coal surface hydrophilic, preventing the
adsorption of collectors and hence depressing coal flotation. The coating behavior of
opposite charged fine particles, on the other hand, may make them suitable for some
other useful applications in coal flotation, if such fine particles are hydrophobic. In this
work, the effect of the adsorbed hydrophobic nanoparticle on the hydrophobicity of the
coal surface is discussed.
It is well known that coal is intrinsically hydrophobic originating from its organic
matrix of C-C and C-H bonds (Ding 2010). However, the inclusion of inorganic elements
and mineral matters makes coal surface hydrophilic, leading to a weak bonding of coal
particles with air bubbles during flotation (Gosiewska et al. 2002). To enhance the
hydrophobicity of coal particles, oily materials, such as diesel oil and kerosene, are
commonly added industrially as collectors (Dey 2012). Collectors are chemical reagents
adsorbed on particle surfaces to produce sufficient air bubble-particle attachment strength
in flotation (Ding 2010). Industrial collectors are different types of liquid with an extended
molecular length of about 1 nm (Hajati et al. 2016). This article proposes a new class of
flotation collector, polystyrene nanoparticle (about 60 nm), to obtain clean concentrates
from high ash coal fines.
In materials science and nanotechnology, nanoparticles have been used to induce
super-hydrophobicity or ultra-hydrophobicity. It was found that hydrophobic nanoparticles
adsorbing onto solid surface could give a high contact angle (Yang 2011). Inspired by this, Dr.
Pelton proposed to use polymeric nanoparticles as flotation collectors (Dong 2016). In recent
years, several types of nanoparticles were synthesized and evaluated as flotation collectors. Yang
et al. (2011) reported that the adsorption of 46 nm nanoparticles onto glass beads with a
diameter of 43 μm, a mineral model, facilitated virtually complete removal of the beads by
flotation. Surprisingly, even 5% coverage of the bead surface with nanoparticles promoted high
flotation efficiency. Yang et al. (2013) also evaluated hydrophobic polystyrene nanoparticles as
collectors for pentlandite flotation. It was found that polystyrene nanoparticles bearing surface
imidazole groups specifically bonded nickel ions and promoted pentlandite flotation from
ultramafic. Hajati et al. (2016) introduced natural hydrophobic talc nanoparticles as a collector
in a flotation of quartz. It indicated that talc nanoparticle size and flotation time affected the
dosage of the collector required. Mehdi, Mohammad, and Abbas (2016) synthesized SiO2-TiO2
hydrophobic nanocomposite as a collector for hematite flotation and this nanoparticle collector
showed an improvement in both the recovery and selectivity. In spite of the fact that several
kinds of nanoparticles have been successfully used, very few studies have been conducted on the
nanoparticle as collectors in coal flotation.
In this investigation, cationic hydrophobic polystyrene nanoparticles were prepared
and employed as a collector to obtain clean concentrate in the flotation of high ash
coal fines. The flotation performance using nanoparticles was compared to that using
diesel oil. The mechanism and efficacy of nanoparticle as the collector was also
discussed.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COAL PREPARATION AND UTILIZATION 3

Experimental
Materials and reagents
A run-of-mine anthracite coal sample was acquired from a coal preparation plant in
Yongcheng, China. The as-received sample was crushed, ground and sieved to 0.5 mm.
The proximate analysis of the coal was as follows: Mad = 2.41%, Aad = 24.30%,
Vad = 8.64%, Sd = 1.05%, where Mad is the moisture content, Aad is the ash content, Vad
is the volatile matter content, and Sd is the sulfur content.
Styrene (99%, LingFeng) was purified by vacuum distillation. Cetyltrimethylammonium
bromide (CTAB, 99%) and 2,2ʹ-azobis (2-methylpropionamidine) dihydrochloride (V50,
99%) were purchased from Sinopharm and used as supplied.

Methods
Nanoparticle preparation and characterization
The polystyrene nanoparticles (latex) were prepared by batch emulsion polymerization. As
shown in Figure 1, the polymerization was conducted in a three-necked flask equipped with
a condenser, two rubber stoppers holding syringe needles, and a magnetic stirring bar. First
of all, 100 mL of deionized water was charged to the reactor followed by nitrogen bubbling
for 30 min at 70°C with a stirring speed of 350 rpm. Then, 5.0 g of styrene and 0.25 g of 50 wt
% CTAB were added to the reactor. The mixture was equilibrated for several minutes before

Figure 1. Experimental setup of batch emulsion polymerization.

4 M. AN ET AL.

0.10 g of V50 dissolved in 10 mL of water was injected to initiate the polymerization. Finally,
the reaction was stirred at 70°C for 24 h. The resulting latex was dialyzed for 1 week against
deionized water before further characterization or use in flotation test. Figure 2 shows the
photograph of the as-synthesized polystyrene nanoparticle latex.
The zeta potential and diameter of the nanoparticle were measured using a ZetaPALS
instrument (Brookhaven Instruments Co., USA). All the measurements were repeated
three times at room temperature of 25°C, and the average value was calculated. Table 1
summarizes the recipes, particle diameter, and zeta potential for the nanoparticles. The
average diameter of the nanoparticles used in this investigation was 58 nm, and the
nanoparticles had a positive zeta potential.

Coal flotation
Flotation experiments were then conducted in a 1.0 L XFD flotation cell at pH 8 using 70 g
of coal. 2-octanol was used as the frother with its dosage fixed at 100 g/t. The impeller
speed of the flotation machine was set at 1800 rpm and the air flow rate was set at 2 L/min.
Slurry was first agitated in the flotation cell for 3 min, after which the polystyrene
nanoparticle or diesel oil was added and the slurry was conditioned for an additional
period of 5 min. The frother was then added for conditioning for another 1 min. In the
end, the flotation was started after introducing air. Froth samples were collected after 30,

Figure 2. Photograph of the as-synthesized polystyrene nanoparticle latex.

Table 1. Recipe for preparation and some properties of nanoparticle.

Recipes, gram
H2O St CTAB V50 diameter, nm Zeta potential, mVa
100 5 0.25 0.1 58 28.45
a
Measured at pH 8.0.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COAL PREPARATION AND UTILIZATION 5

60, 120 and 180 s of flotation. The collected samples were then filtered, dried, weighed and
analyzed for ash. The combustible was calculated using the following equation:
Combustible recovery ð%Þ¼½MC ð100AC Þ=MF ð100AF Þ100

where MC is weight of the concentrate (%), MF is weight of the feed (%), AC is the ash
content of the concentrate (%), and AF is the ash content of the feed (%).

Electron probe microanalyzer

To gain more information regarding the properties of nanoparticle deposition, images of
the recovered concentrate and tailings from the flotation tests using nanoparticles were
acquired by using an EPMA-8050G (Shimadzu, Japan) electron probe microanalyzer
(EPMA).

Contact angle measurements

Measurements of water contact angle were performed on the coal sample treated by
different collectors using DSA100 contact angle analyzer (Kruss, Germany). In each test,
5 g coal (−0.074 mm) was first stirred with a magnetic stirrer in different collector
solutions for 30min. And the suspension was filtered and dried. Then the coal sample
was performed at 55 KN for 1 min using a ZHY-601B powder compressing machine
(China). The measurements were repeated four times and the average value was used. The
standard deviation for the contact angle values was within 2.0°.

Results
Coal flotation performance using nanoparticle
Coal samples were first floated at a nanoparticle dosage ranging from 0 to 2.5 kg/t. The
results are given in Figure 3 where flotation performance of different nanoparticle dosage
are compared with respect to combustible recovery and concentrate ash. It is clear that the
combustible recovery increased with the concentrate ash. Higher combustible recovery and
concentrate ash were obtained using higher dosage nanoparticle. The combustible recovery
decreased as the nanoparticle dosage increased at the same ash content of the concentrate.
The ash content of the concentrate increased with the nanoparticle dosage while the
combustible recovery remained the same, indicating that a higher dosage can decrease the
selectivity of the nanoparticles. The reason for the lack of selectivity at the higher dosage can
be explained by non-selective adsorption of the nanoparticles on both coal and ash-forming
matter. On the basis of these results, the highest combustible recovery was obtained at the
nanoparticle dosage of 2.5 kg/t in the investigated range, where the concentrate ash content
of 10.87% at 85.63% combustible recovery was obtained after 5 min of flotation time.
The test results of the combustible recovery at different nanoparticle dosages as a function
of flotation time are shown in Figure 4. The figure clearly illustrates that the combustible
recovery increased with an increase in flotation time and then reached the maximum values
for all the nanoparticle dosages tested. Similar results have been reported in coal flotation by
using various collectors, as suggested by the literature (Gupta, Banerjee, and Mishra 2009; Liao
et al. 2015, 2016; Zhang et al. 2013). It is also observed that the maximum value increased with
the nanoparticle dosage. The combustible recovery increased as the nanoparticle dosage was
6 M. AN ET AL.

90
0kg/t

Combustible matter recovery (%)

80 0.5kg/t
1.0kg/t
70 1.5kg/t
2.0kg/t
60 2.5kg/t

50

40

30

20

10
6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0 10.5 11.0
Ash content (%)
Figure 3. Combustible recovery as a function of the ash content at different nanoparticle dosage.

90
0kg/t
Combustible matter recovery (%)

80 0.5kg/t
1.0kg/t
70
1.5kg/t
60 2.0kg/t
2.5kg/t
50

40

30

20

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Time (s)
Figure 4. Combustible recoveries as a function of the flotation time at different nanoparticle dosage.

increased at the same flotation time, which indicates that a higher dosage has a faster
increasing rate. Therefore, the relative order of increasing rate among the six nanoparticle
dosages is given: 0 kg/t < 0.5 kg/t < 1 kg/t < 1.5 kg/t < 2 kg/t < 2.5 kg/t.
Test results related to the combustible recovery versus flotation time at different collector
dosages were fitted to a classical first-order kinetic model. The classical first-order kinetic
model for batch flotation is written as (Liao et al. 2015, 2016):

ε ¼ ε1 ½1  expðktÞ
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COAL PREPARATION AND UTILIZATION 7

Table 2. Fitted results of coal flotation at different nanoparticle dosage.

Parameters 0 kg/t 0.5 kg/t 1.0 kg/t 1.5 kg/t 2.0 kg/t 2.5 kg/t
ε∞ 48 68 77 82 84 86
K 0.01118 0.01216 0.01258 0.01294 0.01326 0.01332

where ε is fractional recovery at timet; ε1 is fractional ultimate recovery; kis rate constants.
The fractional ultimate recovery (ε) and flotation rate constant (k) were obtained, as given in
Table 2. The trend of the ultimate recovery values as a function of the collector dosage was
similar to the test data (see Figure 4). In addition, the flotation rate constants increased as the
collector dosage increased, which is consistent with the results of increasing rate order.

Comparing nanoparticle with diesel oil

Figure 5 compares the concentrate ash content and combustible recovery obtained using the
nanoparticles with those using diesel oil. A clean concentrate with about 10% ash content
and over 80% combustible recovery was successfully obtained from floating high ash coal
fines using nanoparticle. Both the concentrate ash content and combustible recovery
increased with the increasing nanoparticle dosage. Without the nanoparticles added, the
concentrate ash content of 7.95% at 42.27% combustible recovery was obtained after 5 min
of flotation time. This was attributed to the poor coal natural hydrophobicity. When the
nanoparticle dosage was 0.5 kg/t, a product with 8.79% ash content and 65.97% combustible
recovery was produced, while the combustible recovery can be further increased to 85.63%
with 10.87% ash content in case of 2.5 kg/t. In general, the nanoparticles can significantly
increase the combustible recovery and keep the concentrate ash content at a low level. By
using 0.5 kg/t of diesel oil, a clean coal with 9.84% ash content and 81.12% combustible
recovery was obtained. Although the diesel oil gave 1.03% lower concentrate ash than that
given by the nanoparticles, the nanoparticles gave about 4% higher combustible matter
recovery than that given by diesel oil. Note that although the nanoparticles performed well,
the nanoparticle dosage was four times greater than that of diesel oil.
Contact angle has been extensively used to characterize the hydrophobicity and floatability
of coal samples. To assess the ability of increasing the hydrophobicity of coal surface, the water
contact angle of the coal sample treated by the nanoparticles and the diesel oil was compared.
As shown in Figure 6, there was a sharp increase in the contact angles of coal sample treated by
collectors, indicating the use of the collectors enhanced the hydrophobicity of the surface and
produced greater contact angle. As expected, the contact angle of coal sample treated by
nanoparticle was larger than that of diesel oil. The variations of the contact angle agree well
with the above-mentioned flotation results.

Discussion
Nanoparticles were found to lead to an increase in coal flotation recovery on the base of
physical and chemical interaction. The possible reasons for this are speculated as follows. On
one hand, the polystyrene nanoparticle is hydrophobic and its deposition increases the
hydrophobicity of coal surface, as described in the contact angle measurements. On the
other hand, nanoparticle deposition onto coal surface induces the nanoscale roughness,
8 M. AN ET AL.

Figure 5. Comparison of (a) concentrate ash content and (b) combustible recovery between nanopar-
ticle (NP) and diesel oil (DO).

(a) 51 (b) 70 (c) 75

Figure 6. Contact angle analysis of the coal sample treated by different collectors: (a) without collector,
(b) 0.5 kg/t diesel oil and (c) 2.5 kg/t nanoparticle.

resulting in an air/water interface that is typical of superhydrophobic surface (Yang 2011).

Figure 7 shows the electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) micrographs of concentrate and
tailings surface after flotation using the nanoparticles. As can be seen, the concentrate surface
has a dense nanoparticle coverage, whereas the nanoparticle density on the tailings is sparse.
The deposited nanoparticles are randomly distributed that increases the surface roughness
promoting flotation. A number of studies have suggested that microscale roughness could
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COAL PREPARATION AND UTILIZATION 9

Figure 7. EPMA images of dried concentrate (a) and tailings (b) collected after flotation runs using
nanoparticle.

enhance bubble-particle attachment efficiency. Behzad et al. (2016) found that an increase in
surface roughness improved the flotation recovery, contact angle, and bubble attachment.
Firat and Behzad (2016) showed that the roughness of particles affected the interaction forces
and significantly improved flotation efficiency. Moreover, it is worth pointing out the nano-
particles aggregation shown in these micrographs. The easy visualization of nanoparticles on
mineral surfaces is one of the advantages of nanoparticle flotation collector that was described
in the literature by Yang et al. (2013). Therefore, nanoparticles are introduced as a new class of
collectors for coal flotation.
Although nanoparticles were effective in coal flotation in the current study, the dosage
was high. EPMA micrographs show that many nanoparticles were present as aggregates on
the coal surface, suggesting that some of the nanoparticles were not colloidally stable under
flotation conditions. Nanoparticle aggregation occurred during the flotation experiments,
which led to a high dosage. Ideally the nanoparticles should be colloidally stable with respect
to coagulation but should readily deposit as individual particles onto coal (Abarca, Yang,
10 M. AN ET AL.

and Pelton 2015; Yang et al. 2013). To reduce the dosage, two pathways can be done in
follow-up work: (1) sufficiently charging nanoparticles to prevent coagulation through
surface modification; (2) decreasing the nanoparticle diameter to increase the deposition
rate and the coverage on coal surface at a given dosage (Yang et al. 2012).
In addition, a poor selectivity of the nanoparticles towards coal was found. This may be
attributed to the charge of the nanoparticles,that is positive surface charge, which was prepared
by using cationic surfactants (CTAB) and initiator (V50). As shown in the introduction, slime
coatings are typically driven by the attractive electrostatic forces between negatively charged coal
particles and positively charged edges of clay particles. In fact, clay minerals, such as kaolinite
and bentonite, are phyllosilicates which usually have a complicated surface chemistry because of
heterogeneity of charged edges and faces (Liu and Peng 2015). The faces (or basal planes) tend to
be negatively charged, while the edges carry a charge that alters from positive to negative as a
function of pH (Forbes, Davey, and Smith 2014). Zeta-potential measurements have suggested
in literature that both coal and clay particles are negatively charged at flotation conditions of pH
8 (Liu and Peng 2015). The nanoparticle deposition in coal flotation is influenced by hydro-
phobic interaction and electrostatic interaction. Under the attractive electrostatic interaction,
some cationic nanoparticle may also adhere to clay, adversely affecting the selectivity. But even
then the hydrophobic nanoparticles will preferentially adsorb on the coal surface, because
hydrophobic interaction is the major driving force for the nanoparticle deposition and coal
has stronger hydrophobicity than fine clays. Therefore, ongoing work will be focused on
enhancing nanoparticle surface hydrophobicity to improve the selectivity towards coal.

Conclusions
In this study, hydrophobic polystyrene nanoparticles as a collector in coal flotation is discussed.
A clean concentrate was successfully obtained from floating high ash coal fines using nanopar-
ticles. The nanoparticles were found to significantly increase the combustible recovery as well as
to keep the concentrate ash content at a low level, suggesting that nanoparticle collectors may be
potential for coal flotation. It was speculated that the deposition of hydrophobic nanoparticles
on coal surface increased the hydrophobicity and microscale roughness of coal surfaces pro-
moting flotation. Although the current nanoparticles were effective, the dosage used was high.
This is because the nanoparticles in the solution were not colloidally stable. Due to the positive
surface charge, a poor selectivity of nanoparticle deposition was found. Ongoing work involves
maintaining nanoparticle colloidal stability to reduce the dosage and enhancing nanoparticle
surface hydrophobicity to improve the selectivity towards coal.

Funding
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities;
[2017XKZD04].

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