Fluorapatite Ca10(PO4)6F2 containing the most phosphorus is widely found in igneous and sedimentary rocks. More than 60% of the phosphate currently marketed worldwide is concentrated via flotation processes. To date, there has been a growing body of research on the factors affecting apatite flotation.
According to previous literature, first-principles simulation of such mineral processing has not been fully performed. The only attempt they have made is to build a crystallographic model of a particular mineral to study its material properties and determine the relationship between its composition and properties or to compare what material is more effective as a collector for that ore.
Kim Wi Ryok, a researcher at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, proposed a new analytical method for determining the optimum value of sodium oleate, considering the effect of the combination of pH modifier NaOH and sodium carbonate on the flotation efficiency with collectors when the optimum value of sodium oleate is used as a collector in the process of apatite flotation. He evaluated the flotation efficiency by calculating adsorption energy by first-principles calculations, calculating ion concentration variations and measuring experimental zeta potential.
The results show that flotation efficiency varies with the amount of the pH modifier even with the same collector, and the optimum value is 1:3 OH-/CO32- mass ratio. It is also shown that the simulated results estimated by the first-principles method are in good agreement with the experimental values and there is enough evidence to apply this method to other ore beneficiation processes.
You can find the details in his paper “Ab Initio Study of the Effect of OH-/CO32- Molar Ratio on Joint Characteristics between Ore & Sodium Oleate Collector in Apatite Flotation” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.