Processing of chromite ultra-fines in a water only cyclone

Abstract

In the present investigation, an attempt is made to examine the interdependencies among the operating parameters and their interactional effect on the separation performance of a water-only cyclone for treating ferruginous chromite fines. Statistically designed experiments are carried out, and empirical models are developed for the critical response parameters, i.e., yield (%) to underflow, grade (%Cr2O3 and%SiO2) and Cr:Fe ratio of the underflow stream. Further, using these empirical models, operating regime of the process parameters is optimized to obtain the peak performance of water-only cyclone. Also, efforts are made to validate the prediction models with the experimental results. Keywords: Water only cyclone, Chromite beneficiation, Optimization, Factorial designed experiment, Statistical modelling