A methodology for the conceptual design of concentration circuits: Group contribution method

Global sensitivity analysis for identifying critical process design decisions

“…For designing mineral concentration plants, there are the procedures of Hu et al (2013) based on genetic algorithms, Cisternas et al (2014) based on mathematical programing, and Sepúlveda et al (2014b) based on group contribution, among several others. For the design of reverse-osmosis desalination plants, there exist graphical procedures (Evangelista, 1986) and those based on mathematical programing (Sassi and Mujtaba, 2012).…”

A new group contribution method for mineral concentration processes

“…Table 1, which represents the origin-destination matrix of concentrates and tails, shows all processing alternatives; when read by rows, the destination of concentrates (X) and tails (O) of each stage can be obtained, and when read by columns, all the concentrates and tails that are fed to each stage can be obtained. Stages R, C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , S 1 , and S 2 were included in the work by Sepúlveda et al (2014).…”

“…The primary application of these models is in designing chemical products that have the ability to form molecules based on groups of atoms. Additionally, these models have also been used to design separation processes based on fractional distillation (d' Anterroches and Gani, 2005) and recently to estimate the global recovery of concentration circuits (Sepúlveda et al, 2014). In this last work, a model was presented to estimate the recovery of 1492 circuits, which can incorporate 2-6 process stages, based on 35 process groups.…”

“…The new model is an expansion and modification of an existing model in the literature (Sepúlveda et al, 2014). The modifications extend the number of process groups from 35 to 143, which makes it possible to extend the number of concentration circuits that can be represented from 1492 to over 274 million circuits and to increase the maximum number of stages from 6 to 9.…”

Solution strategies to the stochastic design of mineral flotation plants

“…Rigorous designs describe the phenomenon or relations among the design parameters and propose a superstructure that represents a universe of alternatives for circuits, which, after an optimization technique has been applied, allow the optimal alternative to be determined (Cisternas et al, 2004(Cisternas et al, , 2006Méndez et al, 2009, Hu et al, 2013. Hybrid designs are a combination of the two preceding methods, in which computational tools and the experience of the designer are employed to solve the problem (Loveday and Brouckaert, 1995;Gálvez, 1998;Sepúlveda et al 2014). None of the preceding methods for the design of flotation circuits consider that the design might contain parameters that cannot be completely defined or values that might be subject to degrees of uncertainty.…”