| The
agglomeration-flotation soil remediation method has been shown to be an effective method
for cleaning oil-contaminated soil. However, an efficient and ecomomical method for
dewatering the cleaning soil slurry must be found to make the process commercially
feasible. A central composite experimental design was carried out on Mozley one-inch and
10 mm ultra-high-efficiency hydrocyclone to determine if they can be used to dewater the
soil. Underflow soil concentration, soil split, d50, pressure drop, and feed flow rate
were measured for 52 total experimental runs in which the geometry of the hydrocyclones
was varied. Statistical models were fit to the underflow soil concentration and soil split
data. These models can be used to study hydrocyclone operation. The Dahlstrom, Bradley,
and Plitt Models were evaluated for their ability to reproduce the data measured in a
designed experiment.
It was concluded from this study that
hydrocyclones can be used in the soil dewatering step of the agglomeration-flotation soil
remediation method. However, an optimum operating condition can only be found by
performing an economic analysis because a thickened underflow and a high solid recovery
can not be achieved at the same time.
      
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