Inhibition of bubble coalescence by salts and sugars

V. Craig*, C. Henry

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    5 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The size distribution of bubbles plays an important role in many industrial systems and is often largely determined by the outcome of collisions between bubbles either in bulk or at an orifice. If collisions readily lead to coalescence as they do in pure water, the average size of the bubbles is greatly increased. This can have a negative impact on the rate of mass transfer of materials in slurry and bioreactors or on the capture efficiency in flotation processes. Thus the control of bubble coalescence is of great importance in these systems. Bubble coalescence is readily inhibited by the addition of surfactants but this can have other detrimental effects such as foaming, unwanted changes in wettability and a reduction in the liquid-vapour surface tension. Electrolytes and sugars, in the absence of surfactants, are also effective at inhibiting bubble coalescence and in many processes are already present as desirable (or unwanted) solutes. The bubble coalescence inhibition properties imparted by a wide range of electrolytes has been carefully studied as has a limited number of sugars and equimolar mixtures of electrolytes, however the coalescence inhibition properties of complex mixtures of such solutes is relatively unexplored, despite the importance and relevance to industrial systems. Here we describe the influence of electrolytes and sugars on bubble coalescence and discuss how our detailed knowledge of pure systems may be applied to predicting the bubble coalescence behaviour of complex mixtures of salts and solutions that also contain sugars.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationXXV International Mineral Processing Congress 2010, IMPC 2010
    Pages1815-1826
    Number of pages12
    Publication statusPublished - 2010
    Event25th International Mineral Processing Congress 2010, IMPC 2010 - Brisbane, QLD, Australia
    Duration: 6 Sept 201010 Sept 2010

    Publication series

    NameXXV International Mineral Processing Congress 2010, IMPC 2010
    Volume3

    Conference

    Conference25th International Mineral Processing Congress 2010, IMPC 2010
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    CityBrisbane, QLD
    Period6/09/1010/09/10

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