Dry separation of fine particulate sand mixture based on density-segregation in a vibro-fluidized bed

Separation of fine particulate solid materials is one of most important unit operations in industry. Utilization of gas-solid fluidized beds has been considered where particulates are released from constraints due to contacts with surrounding particulates and segregation occurs according to density, size or combination of density and size. Addition of mechanical vibration to the gas-solid fluidized bed may improve dry solid separation. In this study, we investigated the dry separation characteristics of solid particulates using a vibro-fluidized bed especially focusing on the separation of fine particulate ores (≈100 μm) with small density differences. At first, we focused on the influence of fluidizing air velocity on the efficiency of segregation. Subsequently, the influence of vibration strength, vibration amplitude and frequency on segregation behavior was investigated. We found the density segregation does not occur with either gas-fluidization or vertical vibration alone. Only the combination of these effects produces density segregation. The fluidizing air velocity is an important factor to enhance the density-segregation of the particulates with small density difference.