Mechanism Modeling And Optimal Reagent Dosage Control For Gold Flotation Rougher Cell

Generally, various reagents are utilized to change the surface physical chemistry intentionally, among which collector and frother are the most important. For flotation rougher cell, the optimal control objective of reagents addition rate is to maximize recovery of valuable minerals meanwhile minimize the consumption of reagents dosage. Currently, for most of the flotation industry, workers adjust reagent addition rate according to the froth image features, which is too subjective, resulting in turbulent production index. In this paper, a nonlinear mechanism model describing the relationship between reagents addition rate and production index is proposed, upon which realize the optimal control of reagents addition rate.Firstly, the mechanism how collector and frother affect flotation process is analized, a nonlinear mechanism model based on a two-phase structure, describing the relationship between reagents addition rate and recovery is proposed integrating flotation kinetics and mass balance theory. Secondly, utilizing the statistic linear relationship between given recovery and feed grade gained from flotation industrial records, a new approach to predict future given recovery value with respect to feed grade is constructed. Lastly, based on the constructed mechanism model, with the minimum consumption of reagents as cost function, minimize error between model calculated recovery and given recovery as constraint, the optimal control of reagents addition rate is realized. Considering that the collector and frother addition rate is a kind of piece-wise function in practical flotation process, apply control parametrization approach to calculate the optimal collector and frother addition rate. Simulation results upon field data show that optimal reagents control based on the proposed nonlinear mechanism model can approximate the actual reagent addition rate of excellent production shifts, which proves that the proposed optimal control method can realize the optimal control of collector and frother addition rate with satisfying accuracy.