Long Cylinder Dense Medium Cyclones for High Near-Gravity Separations

This project was conducted by ACIRL. In late 1999, Partition Enterprises was invited to assist with data assessment and preparation of the final report.

The project was designed to verify whether the use of extended cylindrical sections in dense medium cyclones can enhance their ability to effect efficient density separation, particularly in circumstances where the proportion of "near-gravity" material in the feed is high. The technical literature, although lacking in specifics, suggests that such is the case and a preliminary study by ACIRL (NERDDC project C1313) generated encouraging results. The project testwork, conducted at the ACIRL pilot plant in Maitland also sought to incorporate trials under a range of cyclone configurations and operating conditions. The objective was to generate a database which would facilitate optimal selection of those factors for industrial operations. The cyclones used were of diameters 350mm and 320mm, with cylindrical sections from 66 percent of cyclone diameter (which is standard for the Dutch State Mines design) to 250 percent of cyclone diameter.

The raw data for this project is available on CD and can be obtained by phoning the ACARP office in Brisbane on +61 7 3229 7661.