ColumnCell™ sparger upgrades

Unprecedented flotation metallurgy and energy efficiency

Aeration plays a crucial role in pneumatic flotation, with sparger efficiency directly impacting energy consumption and minimizing the plant’s environmental footprint. Our online sparger upgrades allows for seamless replacement, ensuring maximum uptime and operational availability.

Flotation upgrades to help you achieve your sustainability and production targets

Reduced energy consumption

Optimized air injection minimizes energy costs associated with air compressors

Improved recovery rates

Smaller, well-distributed bubbles increase the probability of valuable mineral attachment

Higher throughput & efficiency

Optimized bubble size range reduces reagent consumption and enhances flotation kinetics

Less maintenance and downtime

Fewer moving parts mean less maintenance and downtime, increasing plant availability

Benefits

Improved recovery rates
Increased throughput and efficiency
Reduced energy and air consumption
Enhanced process control and stability
Lower maintenance and downtime
Better adatability for different ores and conditions

By improving mineral recovery, reducing energy and air consumption, and enhancing process stability, sparger upgrades help achieve higher profitability while reducing environmental impact—aligning with modern sustainability goals.

Exceptionally unique and flexible offering

There are three sparger upgrade options providing extra operational flexibility. These include the Microcel™ Static mixer, SonicSparger™ Vent and the SonicSparger™ Jet.

All three sparger options allows for online replacements maximizing equipment availability and production rate. This efficiency leads to reduced energy consumption, further reducing the environmental footprint of the plant’s operations. For added flexibility, the sparger can be retrofitted not only to Metso equipment, but to competitor cells as well.

Microcel™ Static mixer

Consists of in-line static mixers and a centrifugal pump.

Tailings slurry is pumped from the base of the column through the static mixers, where air and slurry are mixed under high-shear conditions to create bubble dispersion. As the air-slurry mixture passes through the stationary blades located inside the mixer, the air is sheared into very small bubbles by the intense agitation.

SonicSparger™ Vent

Uses cavitation to generate microbubbles.

A Venturi tube – which promotes cavitation and creates small size bubbles – comprises of a constricted section that is typically centralized within a pipe. After this, the tube gradually returns to the original diameter. Air is introduced before the cavitation constriction, as air injection creates the best bubble size distribution for flotation.

SonicSparger™ Jet

Operates with inlet air pressures between 5-7 bar.

The maximum flowrate of each sparger is determined by the size of the outlet nozzle orifice. The nozzle size and the number of spargers are calculated to suit the specific application. The SonicSparger Jet has up to three different lengths, and in large tanks/columns, they are alternately distributed to provide even air injection through the cross-section area.