Critical oil-liquid interfacial tension for some oil-assisted fine particle processing methods

Abstract

This paper presents that oil-liquid interfacial tension (gamma(OL)) value significantly affects the oil agglomeration and liquid-liquid extraction processes as oil-assisted methods in fine particle processing. The decrease in the oil-liquid interfacial tension leads to the decreases in the recoveries of minerals in both oil agglomeration and liquid-liquid extraction techniques. Eventually, these oil-assisted methods do not take place below a particular value of oil-liquid interfacial tension. The oil-liquid interfacial tension value at which oil agglomeration does not occur was defined as 'critical oil-liquid interfacial tension for oil agglomeration, gamma(c-OL-e)' and at which liquid-liquid extraction does not take place was also defined as 'critical oil-liquid interfacial tension for liquid-liquid extraction, gamma(c-OL-e)' Consequently, the oil-liquid interfacial tension of the medium for successful processes of oil agglomeration and liquid-liquid extraction of a mineral must be higher than the related critical interfacial tension value. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.