Le Roux, Johan DerikCraig, Ian Keith2020-07-152020-07-152019Le Roux, J.D. & Craig, I.K. 2019, 'State controllability of a froth flotation cell', IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 52, no. 14, pp. 54-59.2405-8963 (online)1474-6670 (print)10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.09.16http://hdl.handle.net/2263/75234The control goals for a froth flotation cell are to maintain a stable pulp level and maximise the separation between valuable minerals to the concentrate and gangue to the tailings. Only a limited set of manipulated variables are available to achieve a target concentrate grade and tailings grade for a specific pulp level. The froth flotation cell can be represented by a non-linear phenomenological state-space model. The states of the model are the concentration of minerals in the froth and the pulp, and the volume of liquid in the froth and pulp. A state controllability analysis of the model indicates that the states are controllable using air flow-rate, tailings flow-rate, and feed-rate as manipulated variables. Therefore, given these three manipulated variables, a controller should be able to maximise the separation between minerals in the concentrate and tailings, while maintaining a pulp level within acceptable bounds.en© 2019, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.ControllabilityFlotationProcess controlProcess modellingArticle