Optimal-suboptimal synthesis and design of flotation circuits

Abstract

The integrated approach of process synthesis and design has been applied to determine the optimal-suboptimal configuration and design parameters of a flotation circuit for separation of mineral species. Mean residence time of parti-culate species in each cell is the design parameter to be optimized, which along with the optimal structure is extracted simultaneously from a generalized circuit by direct search. The validity of the method has been demonstrated by comparing results obtained by using this method with real optimal structure and parameter values obtained by optimizing all feasible structures, enumerated one at a time, for the case of a two cell circuit using two different objective functions of recovery, grade, and profit. The method is then extended to more realistic four cell circuit and feed comprising valuable mineral, gangue, and middlings.