Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B03—SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS; MAGNETIC OR ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS FROM SOLID MATERIALS OR FLUIDS; SEPARATION BY HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRIC FIELDS
  • B03D—FLOTATION; DIFFERENTIAL SEDIMENTATION
  • B03D1/00—Flotation
  • B03D1/001—Flotation agents
  • B03D1/004—Organic compounds
  • B03D1/016—Macromolecular compounds
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B03—SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS; MAGNETIC OR ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS FROM SOLID MATERIALS OR FLUIDS; SEPARATION BY HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRIC FIELDS
  • B03B—SEPARATING SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS
  • B03B5/00—Washing granular, powdered or lumpy materials; Wet separating
  • B03B5/28—Washing granular, powdered or lumpy materials; Wet separating by sink-float separation
  • B03B5/30—Washing granular, powdered or lumpy materials; Wet separating by sink-float separation using heavy liquids or suspensions
  • B03B5/44—Application of particular media therefor
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B03—SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS; MAGNETIC OR ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS FROM SOLID MATERIALS OR FLUIDS; SEPARATION BY HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRIC FIELDS
  • B03D—FLOTATION; DIFFERENTIAL SEDIMENTATION
  • B03D1/00—Flotation
  • B03D1/02—Froth-flotation processes
  • B03D1/021—Froth-flotation processes for treatment of phosphate ores
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C08—ORGANIC MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS; THEIR PREPARATION OR CHEMICAL WORKING-UP; COMPOSITIONS BASED THEREON
  • C08F—MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS OBTAINED BY REACTIONS ONLY INVOLVING CARBON-TO-CARBON UNSATURATED BONDS
  • C08F216/00—Copolymers of compounds having one or more unsaturated aliphatic radicals, each having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond, and at least one being terminated by an alcohol, ether, aldehydo, ketonic, acetal or ketal radical
  • C08F216/02—Copolymers of compounds having one or more unsaturated aliphatic radicals, each having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond, and at least one being terminated by an alcohol, ether, aldehydo, ketonic, acetal or ketal radical by an alcohol radical
  • C08F216/04—Acyclic compounds
  • C08F216/08—Allyl alcohol
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C08—ORGANIC MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS; THEIR PREPARATION OR CHEMICAL WORKING-UP; COMPOSITIONS BASED THEREON
  • C08F—MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS OBTAINED BY REACTIONS ONLY INVOLVING CARBON-TO-CARBON UNSATURATED BONDS
  • C08F220/00—Copolymers of compounds having one or more unsaturated aliphatic radicals, each having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond, and only one being terminated by only one carboxyl radical or a salt, anhydride ester, amide, imide or nitrile thereof
  • C08F220/02—Monocarboxylic acids having less than ten carbon atoms; Derivatives thereof
  • C08F220/10—Esters
  • C08F220/26—Esters containing oxygen in addition to the carboxy oxygen
  • C08F220/28—Esters containing oxygen in addition to the carboxy oxygen containing no aromatic rings in the alcohol moiety
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C08—ORGANIC MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS; THEIR PREPARATION OR CHEMICAL WORKING-UP; COMPOSITIONS BASED THEREON
  • C08F—MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS OBTAINED BY REACTIONS ONLY INVOLVING CARBON-TO-CARBON UNSATURATED BONDS
  • C08F228/00—Copolymers of compounds having one or more unsaturated aliphatic radicals, each having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond, and at least one being terminated by a bond to sulfur or by a heterocyclic ring containing sulfur
  • C08F228/02—Copolymers of compounds having one or more unsaturated aliphatic radicals, each having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond, and at least one being terminated by a bond to sulfur or by a heterocyclic ring containing sulfur by a bond to sulfur
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B03—SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS; MAGNETIC OR ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS FROM SOLID MATERIALS OR FLUIDS; SEPARATION BY HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRIC FIELDS
  • B03D—FLOTATION; DIFFERENTIAL SEDIMENTATION
  • B03D1/00—Flotation
  • B03D1/001—Flotation agents
  • B03D1/004—Organic compounds
  • B03D1/008—Organic compounds containing oxygen
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B03—SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS; MAGNETIC OR ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS FROM SOLID MATERIALS OR FLUIDS; SEPARATION BY HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRIC FIELDS
  • B03D—FLOTATION; DIFFERENTIAL SEDIMENTATION
  • B03D1/00—Flotation
  • B03D1/001—Flotation agents
  • B03D1/004—Organic compounds
  • B03D1/01—Organic compounds containing nitrogen
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B03—SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS; MAGNETIC OR ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS FROM SOLID MATERIALS OR FLUIDS; SEPARATION BY HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRIC FIELDS
  • B03D—FLOTATION; DIFFERENTIAL SEDIMENTATION
  • B03D1/00—Flotation
  • B03D1/001—Flotation agents
  • B03D1/004—Organic compounds
  • B03D1/012—Organic compounds containing sulfur
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B03—SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS; MAGNETIC OR ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS FROM SOLID MATERIALS OR FLUIDS; SEPARATION BY HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRIC FIELDS
  • B03D—FLOTATION; DIFFERENTIAL SEDIMENTATION
  • B03D2201/00—Specified effects produced by the flotation agents
  • B03D2201/002—Coagulants and Flocculants
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B03—SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS; MAGNETIC OR ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS FROM SOLID MATERIALS OR FLUIDS; SEPARATION BY HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRIC FIELDS
  • B03D—FLOTATION; DIFFERENTIAL SEDIMENTATION
  • B03D2201/00—Specified effects produced by the flotation agents
  • B03D2201/06—Depressants
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C08—ORGANIC MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS; THEIR PREPARATION OR CHEMICAL WORKING-UP; COMPOSITIONS BASED THEREON
  • C08F—MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS OBTAINED BY REACTIONS ONLY INVOLVING CARBON-TO-CARBON UNSATURATED BONDS
  • C08F216/00—Copolymers of compounds having one or more unsaturated aliphatic radicals, each having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond, and at least one being terminated by an alcohol, ether, aldehydo, ketonic, acetal or ketal radical
  • C08F216/02—Copolymers of compounds having one or more unsaturated aliphatic radicals, each having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond, and at least one being terminated by an alcohol, ether, aldehydo, ketonic, acetal or ketal radical by an alcohol radical
  • C08F216/04—Acyclic compounds
  • C08F216/08—Allyl alcohol
  • C08F216/085—Allyl alcohol alkoxylate
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C08—ORGANIC MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS; THEIR PREPARATION OR CHEMICAL WORKING-UP; COMPOSITIONS BASED THEREON
  • C08F—MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS OBTAINED BY REACTIONS ONLY INVOLVING CARBON-TO-CARBON UNSATURATED BONDS
  • C08F220/00—Copolymers of compounds having one or more unsaturated aliphatic radicals, each having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond, and only one being terminated by only one carboxyl radical or a salt, anhydride ester, amide, imide or nitrile thereof
  • C08F220/02—Monocarboxylic acids having less than ten carbon atoms; Derivatives thereof
  • C08F220/04—Acids; Metal salts or ammonium salts thereof
  • C08F220/06—Acrylic acid; Methacrylic acid; Metal salts or ammonium salts thereof
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C08—ORGANIC MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS; THEIR PREPARATION OR CHEMICAL WORKING-UP; COMPOSITIONS BASED THEREON
  • C08F—MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS OBTAINED BY REACTIONS ONLY INVOLVING CARBON-TO-CARBON UNSATURATED BONDS
  • C08F220/00—Copolymers of compounds having one or more unsaturated aliphatic radicals, each having only one carbon-to-carbon double bond, and only one being terminated by only one carboxyl radical or a salt, anhydride ester, amide, imide or nitrile thereof
  • C08F220/02—Monocarboxylic acids having less than ten carbon atoms; Derivatives thereof
  • C08F220/52—Amides or imides
  • C08F220/54—Amides, e.g. N,N-dimethylacrylamide or N-isopropylacrylamide
  • C08F220/56—Acrylamide; Methacrylamide
• • C08F2216/085—
• • C08F2220/281—

Definitions

• This invention relates generally to a phosphate processing, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a process and chemistry for dolomite suppression during phosphate flotation or for selective flocculation of dolomite from process waters or calcium phosphate, such as Francolite, apatite, etc.
• Magnesium is becoming more and more of a concern to phosphate producers. They have known about dolomite ores for decades, but have been able to selectively mine the high quality ores, thus bypassing those rich in the magnesium-containing dolomite.
• the concern of magnesium comes from the quality or concentration that must be processed at the fertilizer production facilities, who are the customers of the mined phosphate product.
• the magnesium can interact with the sulfuric acid, thus increasing the demand and cost for this acidification process. It is also known to produce a range of undesired byproducts such as magnesium pyrophosphate sludge.
• the ore At the mine site, the ore generally comes in and goes through various washing and screening stages in an effort to remove the high quality phosphate rock, which is high in particle size.
• the remaining fractions are put through washing and desliming through a hydrocyclone to further reduce the clays and silica.
• the remaining size fraction which is approximately 100 to approximately 1000 microns, will move on to a multistaged flotation where the rougher stage is a phosphate flotation using fatty acid collectors and the second stage is a cleaner (reverse flotation) process where the sand is floated with an amine and the phosphate stays behind and moves on to a dewatering step followed by transferring or being sold to a fertilizer production chemical plant.
• the dolomite can contain a wide range of particle sizes, but is generally on the higher end of the fraction that is collected for flotation.
• magnesium carbonate can also be entrained within the calcium phosphate.
• the invention in general, in a first aspect, relates to a magnesium suppressant/flocculant for use in reducing dolomite concentrations in phosphate processing, the magnesium suppressant/flocculant is a polymer comprising a base monomer comprising acrylic acid, acrylamide, or a combination of acrylic acid and acrylamide and a functional monomer comprising hydroxyl ethyl methacrylate, 2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid, 3-allyloxy-1, 2-propanediol, and/or a derivative thereof.
• the molecular weight of the polymer may be 3,000 daltons to 30,000 daltons when the polymer is a magnesium suppressant, or alternately 200,000 daltons to 10,000,000 daltons when the polymer is a magnesium flocculant.
• the charge of the functional monomer may be 10% to 30%, or could be as high as 99%.
• the magnesium suppressant/flocculant may be used in a method of reducing dolomite concentrations in phosphate processing.
• the method may comprise adding the magnesium suppressant to phosphate-containing fractions; conditioning the fractions with fatty acid; and subjecting the fractions to a phosphate flotation. Adding the magnesium suppressant to the fractions may prevent magnesium within the fractions from interacting with the fatty acid, which may minimize the extent to which the magnesium interacts with hydrophobic bubbles during the phosphate flotation.
• the method may further comprise grinding the fractions prior to adding the magnesium suppressant. The grinding may result in a particle size of less than 100 microns.
• the magnesium suppressant/flocculant may be used in an alternate method comprising adding magnesium flocculant to phosphate rock during processing at a chemical plant.
• the method may further comprise transferring the phosphate rock to a clarifier or thickener, where the magnesium flocculant selectively flocculates dolomite in the phosphate rock such that the dolomite settles to the bottom of the clarifier or thickener, and removing the dolomite from the bottom of the clarifier or thickener.
• the method may further comprise rinsing the phosphate rock with pond water to extract soluble magnesium prior to adding the magnesium flocculant, either alone or with coagulant.
• the method may further comprise grinding the fractions prior to adding the magnesium flocculant, potentially resulting in a particle size of less than 100 microns.
• the invention in general, in a first aspect, relates to a process and chemistry for reducing dolomite concentrations in phosphate processing.
• the typical process for removing phosphate from ore at a mine site involves a four stage process.
• the ore may go through various washing and screening stages to remove large, high quality phosphate rock.
• the remaining fractions may be washed, deslimed, and put through a hydrocyclone to reduce clays and silica.
• the remaining fractions which are typically between 100 and 1000 microns, may be subjected to a phosphate flotation using fatty acid collectors.
• the remaining fractions may be subjected to a reverse flotation process where the sand is floated with an amine and the phosphate stays behind. The phosphate may then move on to a dewatering step before being transferred or sold to a fertilizer production chemical plant.
• the process for reducing dolomite concentrations may involve adding a step prior to step 3, the first flotation step.
• a magnesium suppressant Prior to conditioning the phosphate slurry or rock with fatty acid before entering the rougher float cell, a magnesium suppressant may be added.
• the magnesium suppressant may selectively complex with the magnesium, which may prevent or minimize the magnesium from interacting with the fatty acid, thus minimizing its interaction with the hydrophobic bubbles, which is what removes the phosphate.
• the magnesium suppressant may inhibit the magnesium carbonate from complexing with the fatty acid that would generally make it float due to the similar chemical characteristics to the desired calcium phosphate.
• the grinding may occur through pipe sheering during transportation or through an external mechanical source, such as a ball mill.
• the smaller particle size may make the magnesium more liberated and thus easier to complex.
• the grinding may result in a particle size of less than 100 microns.
• the process for reducing dolomite concentrations may occur at the chemical plant.
• the phosphate rock may be transferred into a clarifier or thickener.
• the magnesium suppressant may be added to selectively flocculate the dolomite from the calcium phosphate.
• the dolomite may then settle to the bottom of the thickener or clarifier and be removed from the bottom and transferred to a tailings pond while the calcium phosphate is separated.
• the phosphate product entering the chemical plant may be rinsed with pond water, which may extract much of the magnesium as soluble magnesium.
• the calcium phosphate may be filtered or removed by some other means.
• the now magnesium enriched water may then be treated with either the magnesium suppressant or a combination or coagulant and magnesium suppressant.
• the magnesium suppressant should complex with the magnesium carbonate preferentially over calcium phosphate and settle, thus separating from the calcium phosphate.
• the magnesium suppressant may be a polymer.
• the magnesium suppressant may be at least a copolymer if not a tertpolymer.
• the base chemistry may be acrylic acid, acrylamide, or a combination of acrylic acid and acrylamide.
• the functionality for the magnesium complexation may come from adding one or more of the following monomers to the polymer: hydroxyl ethyl methacrylate, 2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid, 3-allyloxy-1, 2-propanediol, and/or a derivative thereof.
• the molecular weight of the polymer When used during the flotation stage, the molecular weight of the polymer may be from around 3,000 daltons to 30,000 daltons, but may go as high as 500,000 daltons.
• the molecular weight of the polymer When used at the chemical plant, the molecular weight of the polymer may be from around 200,000 daltons to millions of daltons, but may go as low as 20,000 daltons.
• the charge of the functionalized monomer may be around 10% to 30%, but could be higher or lower.

Priority Applications (8)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Related Child Applications (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=55266701

Family Applications (3)

Family Applications After (2)

Country Status (6)

Cited By (3)

Families Citing this family (2)

Citations (7)

Family Cites Families (9)

• 2015
  • 2015-07-27 US US14/809,546 patent/US20160038948A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2015-07-28 TN TN2017000033A patent/TN2017000033A1/en unknown
  • 2015-07-28 MA MA40051A patent/MA40051A1/fr unknown
  • 2015-07-28 WO PCT/US2015/042464 patent/WO2016025165A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2015-07-30 JO JOP/2015/0183A patent/JO3504B1/ar active
• 2017
  • 2017-02-09 SA SA517380873A patent/SA517380873B1/ar unknown
• 2019
  • 2019-05-08 US US16/406,116 patent/US10556978B1/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2019-05-08 US US16/406,107 patent/US10913810B1/en active Active

Patent Citations (7)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events