Arrheniusan activation energy of separation for different parameters regulating the process
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Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Geoengineering, Mining and Geology, Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
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Jan Drzymała
Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Geoengineering, Mining and Geology, Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Physicochem. Probl. Miner. Process. 2018;54(4):1152-1158
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ABSTRACT
The Arrhenius model, that relates the activation energy with the kinetic constant and process temperature, was applied for flotation as a separation process, and next was extended to other incentive parameters such as the frother concentration, NaCl content and hydrophobicity. It was shown that determination of the activation energy caused by other incentive parameters (i.e. particle size, surface potential) was also possible. The units of the activation energy depend on the type of the separation process and incentive parameter. For contact angle regulating flotation the activation energy unit is mJ/m2, while for the frother concentration is J. It is known that instead in joules, the activation energy can also be expressed in J/mol and in kT or RT units, where k is the Boltzmann constant, R gas constant and T is absolute temperature in kelvins. Even though different formulas of the specific Gibbs potential were used for calculation of activation energy caused by various incentive parameters, there was generally a good agreement between the extend of changes of the first order kinetic constants of the process and activation energy value. It was found that for flotation of copper-bearing carbonaceous shale the activation energy was equal to 1.1 kT for NaCl as the incentive parameter, 3.0 kT for temperature and 32.7 kT for butyl diethylglycol ether used as a flotation frother. For methylated quartz the hydrophobicity-induced activation energy was 42 mJ/m2 for contact angle as the incentive parameter.