ABSTRACT
Foam flotation is a process used worldwide to separate metallic and nonmetallic minerals from extracted ore. Whereas mineral ore or particulate flotation involves the removal of suspended particles from a reservoir of liquid by extraction into foam, solution separation techniques occur in foam a reservoir of solution. In foam separations bubbles are generated at the bottom of a column containing a reservoir of the solution or dispersion, rise through the column collecting material, and then form foam at the top of the liquid reservoir containing material adsorbed or adhering to the bubbles. Foam separations are achieved by the use of surfactants or collectors and frothers. Foam fractionation is the term used to describe the separation of surface active compounds in solution in a foam column. The proportionality constants depend only on total foam area and collapsed eluant volume, and are therefore independent of the ion type and cancel in the selectivity coefficient definition.
