Emulsification of kerosene and its effect on the separation of unburned carbon from fly ash

This type of fly ash is difficult to float even at a higher concentration of collector due to less dispersion of the collector molecules on the surface. Emulsification of kerosene in the presence of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) dramatically reduces the size of the kerosene droplets. The results showed that much less collector was required to achieve a good separation of carbon from fly ash when SDS was employed in conjunction with the collector. In this paper, the influence of the concentration of emulsifier on flotation was discussed. The emulsifier concentration of 0.2 kg/t produced the superior performance of LOI of 54.5% and the corresponding CR of 93.1%. The contact angle and attachment efficiency of CFA after pretreatment were found to be increased. The results of XRD and SEM demonstrate that a complete separation of unburned carbon from CFA could be achieved by using the emulsifier.