Sunflower oil as green collector in bituminous coal flotation

Abstract

Petroleum-derived reagents such as kerosene and methyl isobutyl carbinol, which are widely used in coal flotation, pose many environmental risks and can cause various occupational diseases. In addition, petroleum products are a nonrenewable source and will be consumed in the near future. In this context, it is necessary to find and develop alternative, renewable products to petroleum products. In this study, sunflower oil was used as an alternative to kerosene, which is an oil product as a collector. Coal flotation experiments and contact angle measurements were carried out with kerosene and sunflower oil. Eucalyptus oil was used as the frother in all experiments. After that, the results obtained from the flotation experiments were compared in terms of ash, combustible recovery, and efficiency index (EI) while the contact angle values were compared to each other. The results showed that sunflower oil is a vegetable oil that can be used as an alternative to kerosene.