Air - Promoted Oil Agglomeration of Moderately Hydrophobic Coals . 2 . Effect of Air Dosage in a Model Mixing System

c 5 Abstract In Part I of this series of papers, it was shown that a definite amount of air had to be present in a laboratory mixing unit which produced a moderate shear rate in order to form compact, spherical agglomerates in an aqueous suspension of moderately hydrophobic coal using heptane or hexadecane as an agglomerant. In this paper, the effects of different amounts of air including dissolved air are discussed. The results indicate that a small amount of air will trigger the process of agglomeration, and even the air dissolved in water under equilibrium conditions at room temperature and pressure is sufficient to promote agglomeration provided it is released from solution.