Simulation and evaluation of the performance and feasibility of two‐stage industrial hydrocyclones for CaSO₄ removal in potassium chloride production

Abstract

The hydrocyclone separator system, a solid/liquid separation method, has been widely used in chemical, mineral, environmental, and power processing. In this study, two‐stage industrial hydrocyclones were used to separate CaSO4 impurity from the crude carnallite in KCl production by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The CFD technique was a useful tool to evaluate the performance and feasibility of the two‐stage industrial hydrocyclones with diameters larger than 400 mm. The simulated results were validated by industrial‐scale experiments. The CFD results showed that 38.2 wt. % CaSO4 could be removed by the two‐stage industrial hydrocyclone. The feasibility and effectiveness of the hydrocyclone separation system were finally evaluated by the simulation.