The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the air dispersion parameters determined for industrial Brazilian flotation circuits. The rougher and scavenger circuits of RPM, Taquari-Vassouras, Copebras and Fosfertil-Catalão (today Vale Fertilizantes) were investigated. For RPM and Taquari-Vassouras, the superficial gas velocity (Jg), gas hold-up (εg), bubble size diameter (d32) and superficial area bubble flux (Sb) were measured, whereas only the Jg and εg were measured in the other circuits. The results pointed out that, except for RPM, all the circuits presented very low values for the air dispersion parameters. Taquari-Vassouras presented the lowest values for average Jg and gas hold-up: 0.05 cm/s and 5%, respectively. The highest Jg value was presented for the rougher circuit of Copebras, 1.17cm/s, while RPM presented the highest values for εg and bubble size, respectively 31% and 2.61mm. In the circuits where the calculation of the Sb parameter was possible, the results obtained lay in a range lower than those reported in literature.
Superficial gas velocity; gas hold-up; bubble size; flotation cell
