54
Demonstration
of a Phosphate Recovery Circuit for Existing Waste Streams--Eriez
Manufacturing, 2200 Asbury Road, Erie, PA 16514-0608;
814-835-6000, www.eriez.com
Dr.
Jaisen N. Kohmuench, Principal Investigator,
Dr.
Michael James Mankosa, Business Official,
DOE
Grant No. DE-FG02-03ER83650
Amount: $380,533
Phosphate
beneficiation plants currently pump hundreds of thousands of gallons of fine
refuse into waste impoundments every minute.
This refuse contains not only fine phosphate, considered unrecoverable by
current industrial practice, but also coarse phosphate that has been misplaced
due to sizing inefficiencies. Unfortunately,
this lost phosphate is a large portion of the total valuable mineral extracted
during the mining process. Its
rejection represents poor separation and energy efficiency, and its recovery
would reduce production costs and lessen the amount of waste sent to
impoundments. This project will
develop a mineral processing circuit for the economical recovery of phosphates
that are currently being discarded. This
process includes column froth flotation preceded by a combination of advanced
hydroclassification techniques. In
Phase I, historical records from four primary
Commercial
Applications and Other Benefits as
described by awardee: Because no
phosphate beneficiation plant incorporates a recovery circuit for the treatment
of fine refuse, commercial applications should include the fabrication and
installation of the required equipment for every available plant.
This circuitry also may be applied to dredging processes that may be used
for recovering phosphate directly from refuse impoundments.