Sole Proprietorship (Moscow, Russia):

Bakharev S. A., Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor, taf@list.ru

Ore processing is associated with the use of significant volumes of circulating process water. In industrial practice, closed-cycle water treatment systems are increasingly being used as they enable highquality circulating water treatment within limited industrial conditions to effectively remove slime particles and generate a dry residue. This article analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of thickeners and relevant improvement options. It is proposed to use acoustic waves of the sonic and ultrasonic frequency ranges in thickeners.The advantage of the method is that it uses the same set of acoustic for solving a wide range of applied problems equipment, requiring replacement of the digital data medium only. Regardless of the geometric dimensions of the thickener, this ensures high performance, minimum power consumption (at the level of 10–30 W per 1 m³ of slurry or concentrate), independent operation, and more. The paper provides the results of comparative tests for the standard and newly developed (with acoustic equipment) thickener operation modes. An increase in thickener operation efficiency has been experimentally demonstrated, namely: higher performance; less slime or product content in the overflow; higher sludge density; reduced reagent consumption and residual reagent content in the overflow; prevention of froth formation and surface froth destruction, etc. This will, ultimately, improve the clarification quality and efficiency for circulating water when handing sludge and reduce main product losses when handling concentrates.

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