The control of process variables is critical for the effective operation of minerals processing plants. In the thickener operation there are three important process control variables for effective performance and are responsible for measuring the flow rate in three thickener applications: the feed, the underflow discharge, and in the clear water outlet in the overflow.
These applications have distinct challenges that can potentially affect the ability to measure flow accurately, such as: pipe size, flow density, pump type, entrained air, and pipe access. Considering this, appropriate instrument selection and implementation are crucial factors to obtain a reliable measurement that can be incorporated in the plant’s control system. This technical paper will review the operation of thickeners commonly used in mining and will focus on describing the challenges and solutions for flow measurement with a passive sonar technology meter in the three critical applications.