Flow field characteristics and production practices of turbulent forced mixing conditioner

Flotation serves as the primary method for separating fine coal slime in coal preparation. Conditioning pretreatment achieves dispersion and homogenization of coal particles and reagents, promotes reagent adsorption on particle surfaces, creates favorable conditions for coal slime flotation, and enables efficient separation. To improve flotation conditioning performance and enhance flotation efficiency, this study examines the turbulent forced mixing conditioning process modification at the Coal Preparation Plant of Pingdingshan Tian'an Coal Mining Co. Ltd. (No. 8 Mine). Using computational fluid dynamics, the operational features and flow field characteristics of the turbulent forced mixing conditioner are analyzed. Industrial flotation comparative trials validated the production effectiveness and feasibility of this modification. The study shows that the conditioner generates a uniform, high-velocity flow field with intense turbulent motion, strengthening particle-reagent interactions and improving conditioning efficiency. Production results show that significant flotation performance improvements: clean coal yield increased by nearly 1 percentage point while maintaining comparable clean coal ash content, alongside substantial reductions in reagent consumption—collector dosage decreased by 53.12% and frother dosage by 30.55%. These findings confirm that the turbulent forced mixing conditioner significantly enhances particle-reagent interaction efficiency, establishing optimal conditions for flotation separation. This effectively resolves the issues of high reagent consumption and low flotation efficiency at the No. 8 Mine plant caused by deteriorating feed slime properties.