Use of Ultrasound in Physical and Chemical Mineral Processing Operations

UltrasoundUltrasound, which is a sound wave above the humanHuman perception limit, creates some extraordinary phenomena in liquidsLiquid including acoustic streamingAcoustic streaming, and cavitationCavitation related to its various frequenciesFrequency. While acoustic streamingAcoustic streaming causes the effective cleaningCleaning of solidSolid surfaces and accelerates chemicalChemical reactionsReaction, cavitationCavitation, which is the formation, growthGrowth, and collapsing of bubblesBubble in a liquidLiquid, may create liquid jetsLiquid jet and short-lived hot spotsHot spots that may reach extremely high local pressuresPressure (1000 atm) and temperaturesTemperature (5000 °C). Because of these unique features, ultrasoundUltrasound is used in various industriesIndustry including mineral processingMineral processing to enhance separation recoveries and obtain better-quality products at acceptable and bearable costsCost. The current study also specifically focuses on reviewing the use of ultrasoundUltrasound on mineralMineral comminutionComminution as well as its applicationsApplications in physicalPhysical and chemicalChemical mineral processingMineral processing operations. Various previous studies about the use of ultrasoundUltrasound in the literature indicated that ultrasoundUltrasound could increase the comminutionComminution rate of the particles related to their mineralMineral propertiesProperties. In physicalPhysical techniques, ultrasoundUltrasound provides surface cleaningSurface cleaning and slimeSlime removal as well as causing aggregationAggregation of very finely sized particles. UltrasoundUltrasound also enhances the efficiencyEfficiency of physicalPhysical processes such as ore washingOre washing and solid/liquid separationSolid/liquid separation. Furthermore, in the case of chemicalChemical processes including leachingLeaching and electrolysisElectrolysis, ultrasoundUltrasound also increases the process efficienciesEfficiency at lower retention timesTime and chemicalChemical dosages by increasing the surface areaSurface area of the particles and creating more reactive surfaces. For all of these above-mentioned applicationsApplications, the conditions for the ultrasonic applicationsApplications such as device, frequencyFrequency, timeTime, powerPower, and intensityIntensity levels are prominent as well as the propertiesProperties of the medium including purityPurity, viscosityViscosity, composition, and temperatureTemperature. As most of these studies on the ultrasonic applicationApplications in mineral processingMineral processing are carried out at the laboratory or pilot scale, the scale-up studies need to be performed to utilize ultrasoundUltrasound in commercial applicationsApplications in future studies.