Abstract：Four kinds of powders, including asphalt, talcum,petrol coke and coal fines, were chosen to prepare four different binary particles. The asphalt and the talcum were used as the principal powder, and the petrol coke and coal fines as the assistant powder. A model PV cyclone with a diameter of 300 mm was employed as the test cyclone to demonstrate the difference of separation performance between unitary and binary particles. The results show that for the asphalt powder, the addition of either the petrol coke or coal fines improve the asphalt's separation and the coal fines is better than the petrol coke in separation promotion.For the talcum powder, however, either the petrol coke or coal fines reduce the separation efficiency of the talcum powder. It is assumed that if a stable agglomerate is formed due to the particle collision and agglomeration, the particle separation is improved.To further determine whether the addition of the assistant powder enhances or reduces the separation of the principal powder, a quantity called relative agglomerate stability, AR, is put forward which is the product of the particle agglomerate stability and the particle collision number. It is shown that with the use of AR, the special separation performance of binary particles can well be explained both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Keywords: cyclone separator; binary particles; separation efficiency; relative agglomerate stabilit