BENEFICIATION OF BAUCHI GRAPHITE FOR CRUCIBLE PRODUCTION
BENEFICIATION OF BAUCHI GRAPHITE FOR CRUCIBLE PRODUCTION
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2006-10
Authors
NWOBI, BRIDGET EGBI
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Crucibles are manufactured from naturally occurring substance in the earth
crust – clay, quartzite, chromate, bauxite, graphite etc. All these materials do not
occur in their pure form, hence needs some form of treatment before their usage
in manufacturing.
In this study, the graphite from Bauchi State of Nigeria was beneficiated
and characterized. The optimum pulp condition for the floatation using froth
floatation method was found to be at, 0.3mls of kerosene, 0.5 mls of turpentine
and 0.3 mls of 25% Na2CO3 in 50g of graphite ore with 300 mls of water. It was
also found that, the agitation time required for optimum recovery before and after
addition of the reagent was 10 minutes and 5 minutes respectively.
The carbon content was found to be 82wt % for the beneficiated and
42wt% for the raw sample. The density of the beneficiated sample was found to
be 2,250 kg/m3 which closely agrees with the literature value of 2,260 kg/m3. The
largest flake size was found to be about 1000μm, which makes it a good material
for crucible production.
30kg tar bonded crucible were formed using data from laboratory results
earlier carried out. But every effort made to fire the crucible failed. Reasons for
the failure could not be ascertained. The use of clay pots as substitute for the
conventional saggar in the firing could be responsible due to the low gas
permeability of the pots.
Description
A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO
THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA NIGERIA
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF M.SC (CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING) DEGREE
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY
ZARIA.
Keywords
BENEFICIATION,, BAUCHI,, GRAPHITE,, CRUCIBLE,, PRODUCTION