Level control of cascade coupled flotation tanks

At the Boliden's concentrator in Aitik, bulk flotation constitutes an important part of the process for extracting valuable minerals from the ore. A series of flotation cells consists of five tanks connected in cascade with control valves between the tanks and a slowly varying flow of mineral slurry into the first tank. This paper deals with a comparative study of control strategies for level control in a flotation series in Aitik. The aim is to show the potential performance improvements taking into account couplings between the process state variables. Two control strategies are considered; a decoupling controller and a Linear quadratic (LQ) optimal multivariable controller. Experiments with both structures show a significant enhancement of the level control performance as compared to the original SISO design.