Application of the intelligent flotation system at Xiayukou Coal Preparation Plant

With an aim to tackle the problems faced by Xiayukou Plant in operation of its flotation system, such as low automation level, lack of real-time operating data and wide fluctuation of ash contents of concentrate, a fuzzy control-based intelligent flotation system is developed in line with the plant′s actual conditions. The system is chiefly made up by an intelligent control platform, an intelligent perception system and an intelligent reagent dosing station, and is divided into data collection interface, data interface, control logic interface, and man-machine interaction interface. The use of the system enables the flotation system to be operated in an intelligent machine control plus patrol inspection mode rather than manual control mode. Field application shows that the ash of concentrate product can keep steady in a range of 12.0%～13.0% which was previously 9.0%～13.0% while the calorific value of tailing is reduced from 5.02 MJ/kg to below 4.19 MJ/kg; the yield of total clean coal is increased by 0.18 percentage point, bringing about an additional revenue of 7.29 million yuan for the plant per year; and its use can lead to consistency of product quality, cutdown of operating costs, improvement of flotation efficiency and a favorable social benefit. The system developed may serve as a useful reference for other plants to make flotation system intelligent renovation.