Study on the Synergistic Effects and Optimization of Flotation Reagent Blends Under Low Reagent Consumption

ABSTRACT Under low reagent dosage, the flotation performance of diesel as a collector was enhanced, and the synergistic mechanism of diesel blended with oleic acid and CTAB was investigated. Results showed that compared to pure diesel, the oleic acid blended system (Blend A) increased clean coal yield by 81.52% to 92.24%, while the CTAB blended system (Blend B) reduced ash content in clean coal by 10.14%. Meanwhile, the ternary blended system (Blend C) achieved a 93.37% clean coal yield but increased ash content to 19.90%. Molecular dynamics simulations further validated that oleic acid enhances Ow‐Ow interfacial water molecular order, while CTAB strengthens O W ‐H W order. Calculations of self‐diffusion coefficients showed that Blend A (1.38 × 10 −9 m 2 /s) exhibited the strongest adsorption on coal surfaces, while n ‐tetradecane (used as a surrogate for diesel, 3.74 × 10 −9 m 2 /s) had the weakest adsorption. This study confirms that exploring different collector blends can provide reagent solutions featuring low chemical consumption, high efficiency, and selectivity for the effective separation of complex coal slurry.