Application of High Tension Roll Separator for the Separation of Titanium Bearing Minerals: Process Modeling and Optimization

Srijith Mohanan, Sunil Kumar Tripathy, Y. Ramamurthy, C. Raghu Kumar

Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur, India.

DOI: 10.4236/jmmce.2012.1110103                

Abstract

The High Tension Roll Separator (HTRS) is one of the main electrostatic unit operations employed to separate titanium minerals like ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene which behave as conducting from zircon, sillimanite, garnet and monazite which behave as non-conducting minerals when a high potential difference is applied. Three process inputs, namely roll speed, feed material temperature and roll speed have been optimized. Experiments were conducted based on the Box- Behnken factorial design; the results were analyzed using response surface methodology (RSM). A new term, called Operational Quality Index (OQI) has been defined as a process output, which is maximized by quadratic programming, to obtain the optimum operating conditions. The maximum value of OQI obtained under the constraints of grade >96% and recovery >98% is 195.53, at the following operating conditions—Temperature: 102°C, Feed Rate: 1.75 tph and Roll Speed: 132 rpm. Under these conditions, the grade and recovery obtained are 96.6% and 98.9% respectively.

Keywords

High Tension Roll Separator; Response Surface Methodology; Titanium; Box-Behnken Design

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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