Application of nonionic surfactants in mining

In mining, metallurgy and coal industry, non-ionic surfactants are widely used in dust removal, mineral processing, coal preparation and coal water slurry production.

In coal and ore mining, transportation, crushing processing will produce a lot of dust, harm human health, but also cause environmental pollution and explosion, therefore, must dust, dust. Non-ionic surfactants are mainly used in mine dust removal, such as nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether, alkyl phenol polyoxyethylene ether, coconut alkyl anolamine, 4-tert-amylamine oxide ethane admixture.

The main dust removal agents used in coal mines and coal washing sites are: fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether, fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether sulfate, dibutyl phenol polyoxyethylene ether, sodium cetyl sulfate and sodium octadecene sulfate, sodium oleate, etc.

Mining and beneficiation

In the process of mineral processing, the hydrophobicity of the mineral surface is used to emerge from the pulp and enrich. Although the natural hydrophobicity of minerals can be used for mineral sorting, flotation agents (mainly surfactants) are usually used to regulate and control the flotation behavior of minerals for better sorting and harvesting. In the flotation process, foaming agent should be added to improve the foam performance of the collector. Generally, non-ionic surfactants are used as foaming agents, such as fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether and alkyl phenol polyoxyethylene ether for flotation of copper oxide and copper sulfide mixed ore.

Coal water slurry or oil coal slurry liquid fuel is made by adding water or fuel to pulverized coal, which can make the fuel fully burned and improve the efficiency and energy value of the fuel. Coal water slurry and oil coal slurry require that coal particles can be stably dispersed in the dispersion medium, so a small amount of surfactants should be added as dispersant, wetting agent and stabilizer. Common surfactants are polyoxyethylene non-ionic surfactants.