Powder Technology 189 (2009) 4247

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Powder Technology
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / p ow t e c

Direct measurement of entrainment in large otation cells

J. Yianatos a,, F. Contreras a, F. Daz b, A. Villanueva c
a
b
c

Chemical Engineering Department, Santa Maria University, P.O. Box 110-V, Valparaso, Chile
Nuclear Applications Department, Chilean Commission of Nuclear Energy, P.O. Box 188-D, Santiago, Chile
Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Divisin El Teniente, Codelco, Chile

A R T I C L E

I N F O

Article history:
Received 14 December 2007
Received in revised form 19 May 2008
Accepted 30 May 2008
Available online 8 June 2008
Keywords:
Flotation
Entrainment
Radioactive tracer
Particle size

A B S T R A C T
A key response variable to describe the metallurgical performance in a otation cell is the concentrate grade.
The mineral feed characteristics and conditioning determine the grade of the particles attached directly to
the surfaces of the bubbles by true otation, while the operating conditions, such as gas rate, bubble size,
froth depth and others, determine the amount of gangue recovered by entrainment, which nally decreases
the concentrate grade.
In this paper, the recovery of liquid and solids by entrainment was evaluated by direct measurement of the
fraction of liquid and solids reported to the concentrate in a 130 m3 mechanical otation cell.
The liquid and solids entrainment, per size classes (+ 150; 150 + 45; 45 m), was measured by the
radioactive tracer technique. The procedure consisted of introducing a tracer impulse at the cell feed
entrance. The tracer time response was monitored on-line at the concentrate overow and at the tailings
discharge. Also, in order to obtain the quantitative distribution of the feed, samples were taken periodically
from the concentrate and tailings streams, for a period of 4 residence times, during the tracer tests. This
allowed the quantication of the mass of tracer reporting to both streams.
Experimental results conrmed that solids entrainment with the froth was strongly dependent on particle
size, and that the entrainment factor (EF = solid/water recovery ratio) was similar to that reported for smaller
size cells under similar operations conditions.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In the last decade, otation equipment has shown a dramatic
increase in size, reaching 250300 m3 in unitary mechanical otation
cells [13] and more than 250 m3 in pneumatic columns [4]. However,
the impact that big size (gigantism) has on performance is still not
known.
From a conceptual point of view, the froth otation can be considered as a sequence of two operations, reaction and separation
[5]. The reaction (collection) occurs in the pulp zone and the product is
a particle-bubble aggregate that is less dense than the medium and
moves upwards to the froth zone against gravity, while hydrophilic
particles report to the tails. The effective separation occurs at the pulp/
froth interface and during the froth transport into the concentrate
launder. Particles enter the froth zone by two mechanisms; forming
particle-bubble aggregates (true otation) or by entrainment.
Fig. 1 shows a two-stage model consisting of the pulp zone, related
to the collection process, and the froth separation zone. The mass
owrate (tph) in the mineral transport streams is denoted as, F: feed,

Corresponding author. Fax: +56 32 2654478.

E-mail address: juan.yianatos@usm.cl (J. Yianatos).
0032-5910/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.powtec.2008.05.013

C: concentrate, T: tailings, B: bubble-particle aggregate, E: entrainment

and D: drop-back [2].
In a otation cell a froth zone occurs with usually a distinct pulp/
froth interface. Thus the rates of transfer of particles attached directly
to bubbles, of the liquid (water) entrained out of the pulp with the
rising bubbles, and the particles entrained with the liquid, must be
identied as a means of gaining insight into otation sub-processes.
According to the literature [68] two mechanisms are mostly
accepted as responsible for the gangue recovery; the transfer of particles in the liquid that has been trapped between bubbles as they rise
from the pulp zone (entrainment phenomenon), and the coating of
slimes on the surfaces of the particles. The main variables affecting the
gangue entrainment are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Feed solids percentage

Froth characteristics (residence time, froth stability, froth transport)
Density of the solid particles
Particle size
Liquid recovery.

From experimental testing, it has been observed that water recovery is the main responsible for the non-selective ne particles transport by entrainment, from the pulp-froth interface up to the
concentrate launder. Previous works [914,6,18,15,8] have consistently
shown a strong correlation between the water and gangue recoveries,

J. Yianatos et al. / Powder Technology 189 (2009) 4247

43

showing that this relation tends to a linear behavior for ner particle
size classes or higher water recoveries. Also, the gangue entrainment is
generally not signicant in coarser particle size classes (i.e. in the case
of silica equivalent, for particles larger than 50 m).
In this paper a methodology for direct measurement of the fraction
of liquid and solids reported to the concentrate by entrainment is
presented. The procedure was evaluated in a 130 m3 mechanical otation cell.
2. Entrainment factor
Most previous research has shown that gangue recovery by entrainment can be estimated as a function of the water recovery.
Kirjavainen [7] and recently Zheng et al. [16] have shown the same
approach and proposed empirical expressions to estimate the entrained gangue recovery related to water recovery. However, the
parameters proposed in these expressions are dimensionally inconsistent [17].
Neethling and Cilliers [15] and Stevenson et al. [17] have developed
numerical models for gangue entrainment, from a more fundamental
point of view, where results of simulations using these models show a
good correlation with data from controlled experiences at laboratory
scale. However, for industrial operating conditions, the model assumptions are not directly applicable and several parameters are difcult to
estimate experimentally.
Also, industrial operations do not have on-line information on pulp
characteristics of the different streams, typically. Thus, in order to
estimate the water recovery in an industrial cell a steady state mass
balance is required, including information of the main streams around
the system, i.e. for most cases the feed, tailings and concentrate mass
owrate, solid percentages and mineral grades.
According to the above discussion, in order to develop a useful tool
for modeling and/or operating purposes, a parameter called Entrainment Factor EFi is dened as:
EFi

Rgi
Rw

where Rgi is the gangue recovery by entrainment in the i class (coarse,

medium, ne) and Rw the water recovery. The entrainment factor EFi
allows the characterization of the gangue recovery in terms of the water
recovery and particle size, in a particular cell or otation bank operation.
This work describes a method for estimating the entrainment factor
EFi in an industrial large size otation cell, under normal continuous
operation, by a radioactive tracer technique. The procedure consists of
determining the split ratio SRi between the mass owrate of tracer
(liquid and solid per size class) that leaves the otation cell in concentrate and tails, after introducing an impulse tracer signal at the feed
entrance.
The split ratio SRi, is dened as follows
SR

mass of tracer in concentrate

:
mass of tracer in tail

Fig. 2. Sensors location and sampling points.

Rw are calculated by the following expressions derived from mass

balances,
Rgi

1
1 SR1g;i

Rw

1
:
1 SR1w

3. Classication function and degree of entrainment

In order to estimate gangue recovery, Rgi, in terms of water recovery,
Rw, previous works [16,8] have typically reporting the following parameters: classication function CFi and degree of entrainment ENTi, as
described in Eqs. (5) and (6).


mass of suspended solid
mass of water
pulp

apij mpi X p

CFi

1X p
atij mti X t
1X t

apij mpi X p

ENTi

1X p
atij mti X t
1X t

mass of suspended solid

mass of water
tail

mass of suspended solid

mass of water

concentrate
mass of suspended solid
mass of water
pulp

where a is the mineral assay, m is the mass fraction, X is the solid

fraction, subscripts i and j, the particle size class and mineral respectively, and superscripts p, c and t represent the pulp phase below

Once the split ratio factors for water and gangue particles (per size
class) have been obtained, the gangue recoveries Rgi and water recovery

Fig. 1. Mineral transport streams in a otation cell.

Fig. 3. On-line measurement of gangue tracer at the concentrate output.

44

J. Yianatos et al. / Powder Technology 189 (2009) 4247

Fig. 4. On-line measurement of gangue tracer at the tailings output.

Fig. 6. Sampled data t by on-line RTD derived model for tailings.

the interface level, concentrate and tailings, respectively. Here, the

classication function CFi represents the solids concentration in the
liquid beneath the pulp/froth interface relative to the concentration in
the tailings, while the degree of entrainment ENTi describes the solid/
water mass ratio at the concentrate stream related to that below the
pulp/froth interface. Also, the ENTi parameter is the same as suggested
by Savassi et al. [18] taking the pulp/froth interface by reference (i.e.
solid/water ratio reporting to concentrate over solid/water ratio below
the pulp/froth interface).
The CFi and ENTi parameters are related to the split ratio SR presented in this work, as follows,
SRg;i

SRw

mass of gangue tracer in concentrate

mass of gangue tracer in tail
mass of water tracer in concentrate
mass of water tracer in tail

CFi  ENTi :

4. Experimental procedure
In order to determine the SRi parameters, for water and gangue,
the following experimental procedure was developed.
4.1. Tracer selection and preparation
The SRi factor was experimentally determined using the radioactive
tracer technique in a 130 m3 cell of the rougher circuit at El Teniente
Division, Codelco-Chile. Experimental tests were developed for water
and non-oatable solids (gangue) at three particle size classes: coarse
(+150 m), medium (150 + 45 m) and ne (45 m). The water was
traced using a Br-82 solution as the radioactive element. Non-oatable
solid was collected from nal tails in the plant. After particle size

Fig. 5. Sampled data t by on-line RTD derived model for concentrate.

classication, the size fractions were directly irradiated in a 5 MW

Nuclear Reactor, at the Chilean Commission of Nuclear Energy, to be
used as the solid (gangue) tracer in the experimental tests.
4.2. Tracer sampling and on-line detection
The radioactive tracer technique consists of the injection of an
impulse signal (water or gangue) at the feed pulp entrance of the cell.
The presence of tracer leaving the cell at the concentrate and tailings
streams was then on-line recorded, by non-invasive sensors, provided
with scintillating crystal sensors of NaI(Tl) of 1 1.5inch, SaphymoSRAT (Massy, France). Also, discrete samples were taken periodically
from the concentrate and tailings streams. Fig. 2 shows the sensor
location and the sampling points.
On-line radioactive tracer detection at the concentrate and tailings
streams was used to obtain a smooth and almost continuous (minimum period of 50 ms) signal to estimate the residence time distribution of the gangue leaving the cell in each stream. However, even
though both signals are proportional to the corresponding mass owrates, they are not directly comparable. The reasons are mainly related
with the differences in cell design (geometry), piping and pulp characteristics of both streams, for which sensors cannot be previously
calibrated because the stream characteristics are not well known
beforehand.
Consequently, a second measurement was required to provide a
quantitative estimate of the tracer concentration during the impulse

Fig. 7. Quantitative comparison of ne solid tracer in tailings and concentrate.

J. Yianatos et al. / Powder Technology 189 (2009) 4247

Fig. 9. Entrainment factor EFi in a 130 m3 otation cell.

Fig. 8. Quantitative comparison of water tracer in tailings and concentrate.

tracer test. For this purpose, discrete sampling of the concentrate and
tailing streams was performed, in order to measure (off-line) the
tracer concentration during the impulse time response. These samples are discrete, and must be taken initially at a higher frequency,
while the rate of change in the tracer concentration is higher, and
then the sampling frequency can be decreased for larger times, i.e.
after around one residence time. For this purpose, the sampling
frequency was set at 10 s, for the rst 200 s, and then set to 30 s for the
remaining time.
Samples from the concentrate stream were taken directly from the
overall concentrate discharge using a standard manual cutter, while
samples of tailing stream were obtained by pumping the sample from
the cell bottom discharge, see Fig. 2.
Thus, the sampled signals allowed obtaining a quantitative description of the tracer signals, but they have fewer data points and are
more noisy.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. On-line tracer RTD measurement
Residence time distribution data obtained by on-line tracer detection were rstly ltered, to reduce the signal noise, and then a
model was tted to describe the general trend and shape of the time
response curve, employing the large and small tanks in series model
LSTS [19].
For example, Figs. 3 and 4 show the normalized residence time
distribution of ne gangue tracer (45 m), leaving the cell at the
concentrate and tailings output, respectively. A good model t can also
be seen in both gures which describes the average trend of the data.

45

mineral tracer content, each sample of 250 [mL] was introduced in a

lead vessel (to avoid external radiation) which contains a 3 in. 3 in. NaI
(Tl) radiation detector. The signal from the radiation sensor was associated to a multi-channel-analyzer system, model Nomad from ORTEC,
and connected to a notebook provided with software for spectrum
analysis. Thus, the amount of radioactive material in the sample was
determined in terms of counts per seconds (cps), which is proportional
to the amount of radioactive material in each sample. Then, the amount
of tracer mineral per volume of sample in the vessel (cps/m3) was
determined. The mineral tracer concentration was then multiplied for
the volumetric owrate of concentrate or tailings (m3/s), to obtain the
radioactive tracer ow (cps/s).
5.3. Data reconciliation between discrete sampling and on-line tracer
measurement
The LSTS model was adjusted to each RTD data measured on-line
for different tracers, in the concentrate and tailings streams of the
industrial cell. Then, the resulting model was scaled in order to t the
same smooth pattern, considering that this curve corresponds to the
best representation of the data obtained from the discrete sampling
(quantitative off-line measurement). The procedure considered a
linear scale factor to shift the data points of the RTDs, obtained from
on-line measurement, in order to obtain the best t of the quantitative
discrete sampled data. The least-squares method was utilized to nd
the scale factor , by minimizing Eqs. (8) and (9)).
n

/minC

i1


 
 2
nC  Eti C xti C


 
 2
nT  Eti T xti T

5.2. Discrete sampling (off-line) for tracer RTD measurement

/minT

Discrete samples were obtained periodically and simultaneously

from the concentrate and tailings streams. In order to measure the

where E(ti) is the value of the normalized residence time distribution

(modeled by LSTS) at time ti, x(t) is the value of each measurement

i1

Table 2
Experimental data and results on solids suspension per size class

Table 1
Split ratio SRi, entrainment factor EFi and gangue recovery per size class

Fine gangue
Medium gangue
Coarse gangue
Liquid (water)

Particle size
class m

Split ratio SRi

(Eq. 10)

Recovery %
(Eqs. 3, 4)

Entrainment
factor EFi
(Eq. 1)

45
150 +45
+ 150

0.0150
0.0030
0.0005
0.0303

1.477
0.298
0.050
2.940

0.502
0.101
0.017

Particle size class

Fine
Below interface % wt. Solid measured
21.4
Bubble load ton/m3
0.0074
Collected solid % wt. (Eq. 11)
0.09
Suspended solid % wt. (Eq. 12) 21.3
Tailings
% wt. solid measured
22.2

Medium Coarse
6.4
0.016
0.20
6.2
8.4

Total

1.3
29.1
0.0032
0.027
0.04
0.34
1.2
28.7
3.0
33.6

46

J. Yianatos et al. / Powder Technology 189 (2009) 4247

obtained in the discrete sampling at time ti, and subscripts C and T,

represent the tracer in the concentrate and tail, respectively.
Figs. 5 and 6 show the comparison between the ne gangue
(45 m) tracer data in white circles, which was sampled while leaving
the cell at the concentrate and tailings output, respectively. Also, both
gures show the best t of the model derived from on-line measurements, which was scaled to describe the residence time distribution
observed from the sampled data. Thus, the area under the curve corresponds to the time integral and represents the total amount of tracer in
the respective stream.

Table 4
Comparison of degree of entrainment ENTi in otation cells of 130 m3 and 3 m3

Fine gangue
Medium gangue
Coarse gangue

Particle
size
class i

SRg,i/SRw
(Table 1)

CFi
(Table 3)

45
150 +45
+150

0.495
0.099
0.016

0.90
0.68
0.38

ENTi
This paper
(Eq. 7)

Zheng et al. [16]

0.55
0.15
0.04

0.43
0.11
b0.05

5.4. Split ratio SRi calculation

After calculating the scale factors C and T, and integrating the
area under the scaled curves (Figs. 5 and 6), a standard measurement
of radiation (cps), which is proportional to the amount of tracer
reported in each stream, was calculated. The same procedure was
applied for the liquid and solid gangue in three size classes (45, +45
150, +150 m), in order to calculate the split ratio SRi of tracer into
concentrate and tailings. The general relation to calculate the split
ratio SRi from Eq. (2) is then given by Eq. (10).
SR

total cps of tracer in concentrate

total cps of tracer in tail

% wt: collected solidi

Fig. 7 shows the tailings and concentrate areas for the ne solid
tracer (45 m), obtained after RTD modelling of on-line data and
model scaling to t the sampled data under the same pattern curve.
Thus, the quantitative comparison for mass split estimation of the ne
gangue tracer, was obtained.
Fig. 8 shows the tailings and concentrate areas for the water tracer,
obtained after RTD modelling of on-line data and model scaling to t
the sampled data under the same pattern curve. Thus, the quantitative comparison for mass split estimation of the liquid tracer was
obtained.
Thus, the split ratio SRi was calculated for each tracer by Eq. (10).
The recovery, Rgi and Rw, were calculated by Eqs. (3) and (4), in terms
of the split ratios, and the entrainment factor EFi was calculated by
Eq. (1). Table 1 shows the results of SRi, recovery and entrainment
factors for the liquid and solid tracers. These results showed that the
ne gangue (45 m) recovery was 1.5% while the recovery of coarse
gangue (+150 m) was only 0.05%, in the 130 m3 rougher otation
cell.
Fig. 9 shows the entrainment factor EFi as a function of the particle
size class. Also, a model based on the same structure suggested by
Savassi [18], was tted to describe the entrainment factor correlation
for the large size cell.
To compare this result with data from other industrial otation
operations, presented by Zheng et al. [20,16], the corresponding
parameters ENTi were calculated from Eq. (7). For this purpose, SR
parameters from Table 1 were used and the classication functions
CFi were calculated by Eq. (5), using experimental data of bubble
load, gas holdup, solids percent below the pulp/froth interface and

Table 3
Comparison of classication function, CF, values
Particle size class

CF Zheng et al. [20]

CF This paper

100 m3

150 m3

130 m3

45
150 +45
+150

0.80
0.29
0.01

0.98
0.69
0.26

0.90
0.68
0.38

g

 B;i
pulp
1g

collected solid mass

gas vol:
gas vol:
total
vol:


solid watervol: solid watermass

total vol:
solid watervol:
collected solid mass
 100
solidwatermass

11

% wt: suspended solidi % wt: solidi % wt: collected solidi

12

100

10

mass of tracer in concentrate nC  Et C dt

:
mass of tracer in tail
nT  Et T dt

Fine
Medium
Coarse

solid percent in tailings [2]. The collected and suspended solid mass
fraction (% wt.) was estimated by Eqs. (11) and (12), respectively.

where g is the gas holdup, B the bubble load, pulp the pulp density
below the interface, and subscript i indicates the particle size class. The
pulp density measured below the pulp/froth interface was pulp =
1.22 tons/m3 while for the tailings discharge was pulp = 1.27 tons/m3.
The fractional gas holdup measured below the pulp/froth interface
was g = 0.14. Table 2 shows the experimental data [2] and the result
of collected and suspended solid percentages calculated by Eqs. (11)
and (12).
Using Eq. (3) and data from Table 2 the CF parameters were obtained. Table 3 shows the good agreement between the CF parameters
calculated in this paper, for a 130 m3 otation cell, and data reported
by Zheng et al. [20] for otation cells of 100 and 150 m3.
Table 4 shows the ENTi data calculated by Eq. (7) using CF values
(Table 3) and SR values (Table 1). From Table 4 it can be seen that
the values of ENTi obtained in this work, in a 130 m3 cell, for a froth
depth HF = 15 1 (cm) and supercial air rate JG = 1.31 (cm/s), are in
good agreement with ENTi data reported by Zheng et al. [16] for similar
HF = 0.147 (cm) and JG = 1.38 (cm/s), in a 3 m3 Outokumpu tank cell setup at Mt. Isa Mines copper concentrator from Xstrata Copper.
6. Conclusions
The recovery of liquid and solids by entrainment was evaluated by
direct measurement, of the fraction of liquid and solids reported to the
concentrate in a 130 m3 otation cell, for the rst time.
The liquid and solids entrainment, per size classes (+150; 150 +45;
45 m), was measured by a radioactive tracer technique. For this
purpose, the tracer mass split into concentrate and tailings, was determined by on-line monitoring together with periodic sampling of
both streams.
An entrainment factor EFi (solidi recovery/liquid recovery) was
dened in order to relate the solids entrainment per size class with the
liquid recovery, directly.
Thus, the strong dependence of entrainment on ne particle sizes
of less than 45 m, in a large cell, was conrmed. While, recovery of
coarse particles (larger than 150 m) by entrainment was 0.05%.These
results were in good agreement with that reported in literature for
smaller cells [16].

J. Yianatos et al. / Powder Technology 189 (2009) 4247

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to El Teniente Division Codelco-Chile for
providing access to their plant and for valuable assistance in the
experimental work. Funding for process modelling and control research is provided by CONICYT, project Fondecyt 1070106, and Santa
Mara University, project 270522.
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