AN INVESTIGATION INTO BENEFICIATION OF JORDANIAN EL-LAJJUN OIL SHALE BY FROTH FLOATATION; pp. 247–253
PDF |
doi: 10.3176/oil.2008.2.06Author
Awni Y. Al-Otoom
Abstract
Oil shale is available in Jordan in large quantities with high proportion of minerals. This study presents an investigation in order to enhance oil recovery from Jordanian El-Lajjun oil shale, which represents a major local deposit area. This enhancement was attempted through decreasing the content of minerals by the method of froth floatation using different floatation and frothing agents. The effect of the type of agents, the concentrations of these agents, and the effect of particle size were also investigated. Jordanian El-Lajjun oil shale has shown a poor separation propensity (floatability). Particle size and type of frother did not have any impact on the efficiency of oil shale recovery. A maximum recovery of 3% was achieved when using fuel oil as a collector and methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) as a frother in the froth floatation process. It is believed that kerogen causes wetability of oil shale particles during preparation of oil shale hindering floatability of oil shale. On the other hand, phosphates and calcite were found to be easily separable from Jordanian oil shale using froth floatation. A degree of separation of more than 99% has been achieved when using kerosene as a collector and MIBC as a frother.
References
1. Russell, P. L. Oil shale’s of the world; their origin, occurrence and exploitation. – Oxford: Pergamon Press; 1990.
2. Firth, B. A., Swanson, A. R., Nicol, S. K.
Floatation circuits for poorly floating coals // Int. J. Miner. Process. 1979. Vol. 5, No. 4. P. 321–334.
doi:10.1016/0301-7516(79)90042-5
3. Guerra, E. A., Schubert, H. Effect of the suspension state on the entrainment in flotation machines // Proc. 20th Int. Min. Proc. Congress, Aachen–Germany, GDMB, Germany, 1997. P. 153.
4. Gülsoy, Ö. In: Madencilik, Chamber of Mining Engineers of Turkey. Vol. 38. Ankara,Turkey, 1999. P. 13.
5. Klimpel, R. R., Hansen, R. D. Coal flotation. In: Fine Coal Processing / S. Mishra, R. R. Klimpel (eds.). Noyes Publications, New York, 1987. P. 78.
6. Cebeci, Y. The investigation of floatability improvement of Yozgat Ayridam lignites using various collectors // Fuel. 2002. Vol. 81, No. 3. P. 281–289.
7. Altun, N. E., Hicyilmaz, C., Hwang, J., Bagci, A. S. Evaluation of a Turkish low quality oil shale by floatation as a clean energy source: Material characterization and determination of floatation behavior // Fuel Process. Techn. 2006. Vol. 87, No. 9. P. 783–791.
8. Al-Otoom, A. Y. Utilization of oil shale in the production of Portland clinker // Cement Concr. Compos. 2006. Vol. 28, No. 1. P. 3–11.
doi:10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2005.06.006
