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By Jian Li

Corrosion resistance of materials is highly dependent on the microstructure of the specific material. Apart from general corrosion rate measurement using techniques like linear polarization and A.C. impedance, microstructural investigations are frequently needed to identify the root cause of corrosion. Advanced techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), have been well integrated into routine characterization studies. Other microscopy techniques, including electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA), Auger, X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), can provide detailed chemistry information on corrosion products. In recent years, focused-ion beam (FIB) microscopes have evolved into an important microstructural characterization instrument. In this study, corrosion of rebar encased in concrete was studied in great detail using advanced microscopy techniques. Corrosion product on the rebar surface was identified as ferrous oxide with relatively large crystal size. The morphology of this passive layer was thoroughly analyzed, and its formation mechanism is proposed.

Jan 1, 2009

By Manoj Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Nikhil Dhawan, Manish Wadhwa

"Electronic waste (e-waste) is a collective name given to discarded electronic devices such as Television, Cellular Phones and Personal Computers. Among the heterogeneous metals present in the e-waste are the base metals: copper, aluminium, nickel, tin, zinc, iron and precious metals: gold, silver, palladium, platinum apart from several hazardous and halogens metals. Hence there is a need to recover these metals from electronic scrap by recycling and then re-use, which can meet large amount of metals demand. Hydrometallurgical processing was employed for the recovery of metals from television printed circuit board (TV PCB). Different lixiviants such as hydrochloric acid, Sulphuric acid, and nitric acid were used to understand the dissolution behavior of copper, iron and lead present in the TV PCB. Effect of increasing concentration of nitric acid was also studied. Selective recovery of tin over 95% in the form of tin oxide was precipitated. The precipitated tin oxide was identified by X-ray diffraction technique. Tin oxide of purity more than 99.9% was obtained.IntroductionThe electrical and electronic industries comprising computers, television, mobiles, etc, which are manufactured utilizing printed circuit, boards, capacitors, resistance, soldering material etc. During production, at the end-of service life and degradation due to the advanced version with latest features generate valuable metallic and non-metallic constituents. European Union Council on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has classified these into different categories as listed in Table 1 [Streicher-Porte et al., 2005]. Among these the information technology, telecommunications and consumer equipment constitute electronic waste (e-waste) [EC, 2002]. Almost all e-waste consists of an integrated part of printed circuit boards which is a valuable source of several metals such as copper, tin, lead, aluminium, iron, silver, gold, platinum etc. [Relay et al., 1990]."

Jan 1, 2008

By B. G. Thomas

"Mathematical process models can be applied in several different ways to serve industry by inducing beneficial changes to process operation. This paper attempts to summarize the different uses, types, and attributes of these models, and to offer some ideas to consider when developing, using, and reporting on them. Process models range from empirical to mechanistic in nature and vary in complexity from simple analytical solutions to coupled, 3-D transient numerical simulations. They are classified here according to the way in which they are implemented in practice, viz. fully-online models, semi-online models, off-line models, and literature models. The purpose of the model should dictate how choices are made during its development. Ways to validate and compare the model with experiments are suggested. Examples are taken in the context of the author's experience in modeling the continuous casting of steel.IntroductionThe objective of this paper is to provide a partial introduction for this symposium by discussing some basic aspects of the application of mathematical process models in industry. Essentially, the aim is to explore how process models are used to benefit industry, and to offer some general comments and suggestions, based on the experience of the author, on how models can best meet this goal.This work is concerned with process models, which consist of systems of mathematical equations and constants that are solved on a computer to make quantitative predictions about some aspect(s) of the process. The specific variables required as input data and generated as output data are important features of the model. The equations often derive from a numerical solution to one or more differential equations and their boundary conditions. The model also includes the constants, which represent material properties, empirical relationships, and other knowledge about the process, and usually require considerable effort to obtain. Thus, general purpose commercial software packages, (ie. finite-element or finite-difference based codes), are not models in this context. They are useful tools, however, serving as frameworks for the development of process models."

Jan 1, 1994

By Ljiljana Solujic

The need for the removal of mercury from the precious metals extraction circuits may be influenced by process, environmental, as well as by occupational hazard reasons. In these circuits mercury is mainly present as cyanide complexes. The effectiveness of any stabilization method will be influenced by the high thermodynamic stability mercury-cyano species exhibit in an aqueous solution. In this study, we have investigated the utility of the trisodium salt of trimmercapto-s-triazine (TMT) for precipitation of mercury from the corresponding cyano-complexes. The influence of pH molar ratio of TMT to Hg, coagulant and flocculant additions, excess of free cyanide, as well as the presence of other metal-cyano species on the effectiveness of mercury precipitation were investigated in detail. Also, a "teal world" precious metals mill effluent initially containing ~7 ug/mL (ppm) of Hg was treated and A was found that greater than 99.8% of the mercury was removed from the solution as am insoluble Hg/TMT complex.

Jan 1, 1996

By I. Nikolic

Twin-roll casting is an integrated casting and rolling process that involves the continuous solidification of a melt and the plastic deformation of the solidified metal between two rotating rolls. Computer modeling is a valuable tool to help engineers understand the metallurgical process during twin-roll casting. However, commercially available software can only model either the fluid flow/heat transfer of the melt or the plastic deformation of the solid, but not both. In this study, an object-oriented finite element program was developed to simulate the steady-state fluid flow, solidification and plastic deformation of an A7,31 magnesium alloy in a horizontal twin-roll caster. The melt, the mush zone and the solid were treated as a generalized Newtonian flow in an Eulerian reference frame and different constitutive equations were employed to describe the material behaviours. The effect of operational parameters on the solidification process was discussed based on the simulation results.

Jan 1, 2010

By J. W. Bridge

Triaxial compression tests at various confining pressures and temperatures, as well as tangent modulus tests using ultrasonic waves, were conducted for wax-coated granular composite materials. The material used is a surface for Thoroughbred horse racing. The purpose of these tests is to examine how track shear strength and tangent modulus at a range of loads respond to changing temperatures. Previous work has shown that a wide range of operational temperatures are experienced which have been reproduced in the lab. Using differential scanning calorimetry, it is confirmed that these operational temperatures correspond to distinct thermal transition regions for the wax that is used to coat the sand in these surfaces. Preliminary results show that both shear strength and tangent modulus are sensitive to temperature changes with maximum strength and modulus correlating with major DSC wax transition regions.

Jan 1, 2010

By V. M. Paretsky

The basic work conducted by Prof. A.Yazawa has demonstrated that in order to ensure single- stage white metal production by autogenous smelting of copper sulfide raw materials, it is most favorable to use highly basic slags, in particular oxide systems CaO-FeO-Fe2O3-SiO2. The special studies have been conducted in the Gintsvetrnet Institute to investigate the composition and structure of slags produced on a semi-commercial scale when testing the KFP and FBP processes for white metal smelting. as well as the slag obtained in a full-scale KFP furnace at the Almalyk copper smelter. The investigations conducted have demonstrated why production of high-grade matte or white metal is associated with lower loss of copper in slag in a series: silicate slag I silicate-calcium slag I ferrite-calcium slag.

Jan 1, 2003

Today’s world relies upon advanced green technologies that are made of critical elements with unique properties. Examples include rare earth elements (REEs) that are critical in the manufacturing of wind turbines and electric/hybrid vehicle batteries, key components of a greener future that face supply uncertainty and near zero recycling. To tackle their supply challenges, activities have begun for urban mining from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) that contain considerable amount of REEs, but their current level of recycling is less than 1%. Current recycling practices use either pyrometallurgy, which is energy intensive, or hydrometallurgy that utilizes large volumes of acids and solvents and generates large volumes of hazardous waste. In this study, we developed a novel and sustainable process to recycle REEs from WEEE, NiMH batteries in particular. The developed process relies on supercritical fluid extraction (SCFE) utilizing CO2 as the solvent, which is abundant, safe, cost effective, and inert. The effect of seven operating parameters, namely temperature, pressure, residence time, sample to chelating agent ratio, agitation rate, complex formulation, and methanol addition on REE extraction efficiency was investigated, and optimum operating conditions were determined. This work is the first to utilize a very efficient and safe process that runs at low temperature to extract metals from postconsumer products with minimum hazardous waste generation, while offering about 90% leaching efficiency for REEs. We expect our process to find widespread applicability in urban mining of REEs using green chemistry.

By Hao Deng, Hongmin Zhu, Jichao Li, Kai Huang

"Silicon and silicon carbide mixing micropowders obtained from the saw cutting industry of polycrystalline silicon ingot is separated by a simple sequential sedimentation. The Zeta potentials of the powders in the aqueous suspension are adjusted by varying the pHs with dilute acid or alkaline reagents. The dispersion and aggregation content of the microparticles is significantly influenced by pHs, and so their settlement velocity in the same hydraulic conditions are quite different, and silicon powders tend to suspend in the upper section of the suspension for its finer size and smaller density under the stronger Zeta potential repulsion force. The original content of the cutting powders with 30%wt silicon are separated into the Si-rich and SiC-rich powder respectively, and 62%wt Si-rich powder can be obtained after 4 times of sedimentation under pH = 8.0, showing the great potential for Si and SiC powder separation and recovery in a cost-effective way.IntroductionWith the fast development of photovoltaic (PV) technology these years, the market demand for the solar-grade high pure silicon material significantly increased, making the silicon recycling and recovery from the wire sawing slurry profitable and attractive[1]. Waste silicon slurry was produced in the multi-wire sawing process of a silicon ingot by using an ethylene glycol-based solution and silicon carbide abrasives as the slicing system. During this slicing process, about 30% of the silicon ingot will become the waste as the fine particles suspended in the slurry, which mainly consists of silicon kerf-loss particles, SiC fragmental particles, tiny iron fragments from the worn sawing wire and ethylene glycol-based solution [2]. The separation of above individual component is usually easy except for Si and SiC fine particles for their quite similar properties. So the biggest challenge for the effective recovery and recycling of silicon particles from the wire sawing slurry actually lies in the mutual separation of silicon and silicon carbide particles."

Jan 1, 2012

By Frank A. Vonesh

In order to reduce the amount of visible, airborne emissions in the Metals Industry, a new Industrial Gas Technology was developed by Air Liquide. This patented technique is called ALECT?, Air Liquide Emission Control Technology. Demonstrations have been conducted for many cutting and lancing operations as well as for hot metal transfer from vessel to vessel. Fume reductions of 90% and greater have been achieved in actual practice. Air Liquide continues to improve the process and the associated control equipment.

Jan 1, 1994

By Xiao Long, Ting Wu, Lilong Zhu, Qian Wang, Shengping He

"During the continuous casting of peritectic steel slabs, mould fluxes with high crystallization capacity are usually chosen for improving slab surface quality. However, the lubrication condition of casting shell also could be deteriorated. Since precipitation of crystals within liquid slag film can change the composition and property of liquid slag over solid-liquid slag film interface region, its impacts on continuous casting process also are not clear. In order to clear this phenomenon, an experiment method was put forward, and mould fluxes for peritectic steel slabs continuous casting were selected and examined. The results reveal that after crystals have been separated, the crystallization capacity of leftover liquid slag increased with different levels, which could deteriorate the lubrication condition of casting shell and cause a series of problems. Thereby, mould fluxes with high crystallization capacity at beginning for heat transfer control and then weaker after crystallization should be considered in the future.IntroductionIn the continuous casting of peritectic steel slabs, contradiction between heat transfer control and slab shell lubrication by mould fluxes has been treated as a key problem for maintaining a smooth manufacturing process [ 1]. Strong and uneven horizontal heat flux over the meniscus region will cause uneven solidification of casting shell, especially for peritectic steel slab with enormous volume change caused by phase transition. All of those could cause surface defects like longitudinal crack [2-4]."

Jan 1, 2013

By C. H. Tsau

The intermetallic compounds of Ni-25Al-xFe, x is 20-40 at.%, were prepared by arc melting and drop casting into ingots, and were rapidly solidified into ribbons by melt spinning. The microstructure evolution of these alloys with varied Fe content were examined by the x-ray diffraction, optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results reveal that two phases, {y'} and {B} phases, are existing in the alloys with low Fe content, and the microstructure changes from the mixture of y' and {B} phases to a single 0' phase when the Fe-content reaches to 40 at.%. Also, the formation of y' phase will be suppressed by rapidly solidified process. For annealing both of the melt-spun and the cast specimens, a disorder 0 phase was revealed in both of the ribbon and the cast ingot of Ni-Al-Fe alloys with higher Fe content. In addition, increasing the increment of iron which substituting nickel in this alloys results in increasing the lattice parameter of both {y'} and{B} phases.

Jan 1, 1992

By V. M. Paretsky

The basic work conducted by Prof. A.Yazawa has demonstrated that in order to ensure single-stage white metal production by autogenous smelting of copper sulfide raw materials, it is most favorable to use highly basic slags, in particular oxide systems CaO-FeO-Fe2O3-Sio2. he special studies have been conducted in the Gintsvetmet Institute to investigate the composition and structure of slags produced on a semi-commercial scale when testing the KFP and FBP processes for white metal smelting, as well as the slag obtained in a full-scale KFP furnace at the Almalyk copper smelter. The investigations conducted have demonstrated why production of high-grade matte or white metal is associated with lower loss of copper in slag in a series: silicate slag I silicate-calcium slag I ferrite-calcium slag.

Jan 1, 2003

By Junji Shibata

It is important to recover and reuse the metal values contained in various industrial wastes in a viewpoint of environmental preservation. Most of industrial products are made through the processes to separate impurities in raw materials, solid and liquid wastes being necessarily discharged as industrial wastes. Chemical methods such as solvent extraction, ion exchange and membrane, and physical methods such as heavy media separation, magnetic separation and electrostatic separation are considered as the methods for separation and recovery of the metal values from the wastes. In this paper, some examples of the application of solvent extraction to the treatment of wastes are introduced. The treatment of solid wastes such as Ni-Co alloy scrap, Sm-Co alloy scrap, fly ash and flue dust, and liquid wastes such as plating solution, the rinse water, etching solution and pickling solution are accomplished using solvent extraction technique.

Jan 1, 1996

By Chen Dong, Yuanling Gao, Jilai Xue, Jun Zhu, Luxing Feng

"Porous Ni-Ti alloy has many applications in a wide range of engineering areas. The porous NiTi alloys were prepared from Ti and Ni powders in sintering process under argon atmosphere. The major chemical compositions of the sintered Ni-Ti body were Ni Ti, Nh Ti4O and Nh Ti, respectively, the internal pore structures were characterized by image analysis technique, which were dependent on various processing parameters such as sintering temperature, amount of poreforming agent, forming pressure, etc. The results show that the porous alloy samples had the characteristics of uniform pore and high open porosity; pore-forming agent and sintering temperature are important factors in porous; pressure affected the sintered products' pore, by affecting the combination of alloy powder with pore-forming agent.IntroductionPorous Ni-Ti alloy materials exhibit not only excellent shape-memory and superelasticity, high yield strength and ductility, good corrosion resistance and biocompatibility, but also have low density, low stiffness, and high energy absorption rate due to their porous structures [1]. In recent years, these porous Ni-Ti alloys have found applications in a wide range of engineering areas, such as bone implants [2-4], impedance-matching connectors [5], energy-absorbing structures [6,7], separators [8] and actuators [9], etc.Pore characteristics can play very important role in determining of the performance of porous NiTi alloys. For example, when the alloys are used to repair or replace hard tissue implant material, the pore shape and size not only determine their mechanical properties, but also have great effect on the fluid transmission of human body. The pore characteristics can also influence the stressstrain behavior of the porous Ni-Ti alloy and, thus, strongly affect their mechanical properties, superelasticity, and fracture mechanisms [10].In this study, the Ni-Ti alloys with high porosity were prepared in a powder sintering process under argon gas. The pore characteristics were investigated using SEM, XRD and image analysis techniques, especially in association with the content of pore-forming agent, sintering temperature and compacting pressure."

Jan 1, 2011

By I. Hilerio

Chromium Nitride (CrN) thin films were deposited on AISI steel 316 substrates by means of the reactive magnetron sputtering method. CrN films were produced under two different conditions. In the first one, the substrate was heated by a DC source. For the second coating a negative substrate bias voltage was applied. X ray diffraction, quantitative energy dispersion and scanning electron microscope were employed to characterize the two different phases, their chemical composition as well as their microstructure. In addition, a microhardness test was carried out. The results show that a better phase formation of CrN thin films was achieved when a heating source was present (first case). Both coatings presented homogeneous surface. Their compositions show differences even when the gases flowing are the same in composition. Regarding to the hardness test results, there can be found a higher value when using a heating source.

Jan 1, 2009

By Hyun Soo Kim, Joon Soo Kim, Myong Jun Kim, Jyothi Rajesh Kumar, Jin-Young Lee

Rare earth materials have an ever growing variety of applications in the modern and hitech technology. They apply to many an industry with crucial materials and they provide numerous a customers with benefits. Rare earth materials utilization increasing day-by-day in the worldwide, at the same time the resources is very limited in many countries like Korea. The present general article divided four sorts such as 1) mineral processing of Korean ore deals the gravity, magnetic separation and froth flotation, 2) decomposition and leaching of concentrates included sodium hydroxide fritting, sodium hydroxide hot digestion, hydrochloric acid leaching, 3) separation and purification of rare earth elements in mixed rare earth chloride solution consists reduction and oxidation method, solvent extraction, 4) preparation of rare earth oxide compound from purified elemental rare earth chloride solution having oxalate salt precipitation by reaction crystallization. The last part consists of a summary of the present study.

Jan 1, 2015

By W. L. Dalmijn, J. M. Krowinkel

A recycling concept of end-of-life televisions starting with shredding will produce a complex material mixture, very heterogeneous in size, shape and degree of liberation. Basically all materials in television scrap are valuable, which means that recovery is important for either economic, environmental or sustainability reasons. However glass, plastics and metals are the materials with the highest potential for recovery. Non-magnetic materials from shredded television sets can be separated into three characteristic size fractions that need further separation for a high value-added recycling of the materials. This study investigated the potential of physical separation of these size fractions into valuable material streams using polyseparator, tlrldy current separator, dry and wet shaking tables and electrostatic separator. An overall mass balance of the mechanically processed televisions was calculated. Evaluation of the produced material fractions showed that heterogeneity in particle shape and size together with the presence of unliberated materials caused sever difficulties in separation when exclusively based on mechanical techniques. The results indicate that a certain degree of dismantling is necessary to achieve products of appropriate quality in physical separation. In order to improve recycling of electronic scrap through design for recycling cooperation between the electronics industry, the manufacturers and the recyclers of electronic goods is necessary.

Jan 1, 2000

By Onuralp Yücel, Mehmet Bugdayc, Murat Alkan

"In this study, iron based alloys (Fe-Mo, Fe-Cr-Ni, etc.) were produced by using aluminothermic methods starting from Mill Scales obtained continuous casting processes. Mill scales are an oxidised layer of steel alloys containing iron oxide, which includes + 2, + 3 values, on the surface of slabs and billets occurring during annealing in heating furnace at integrated iron and steel milling plant, and continuous casting unit. In the metallothermic experiments, different ratios of starting mixtures and addition of the oxide powders (Alz03, Si02, CaO, MgO) were examined, and their effects on the metal recovery and alloy compositions were carried out. The samples were characterized by using chemical analysis (AAS), XRD, XRF and SEM/EDS techniques.IntroductionSelf Propagating High Temperature Synthesis process (SHS) has many favour compared to the furnace applications, such as low energy requirement, low cost, very short processing time and simple operation, [l, 2]. In a SHS process, the ignition starts the combustion and propagates throughout the reactant mixture yielding the desired product. However, the disadvantages of the process such as inhomogeneous or unreacted products due to undesirable reaction rates needs to be overcome by changing some parameters such as ignition temperature, particle size, additive, atmosphere etc. [3, 4]. Mill scale is a layer of iron oxide which forms on ferrous materials cooling after being processed in hot rolling or continuous casting plants. Mill scale contains iron (II) and iron (III) oxides, which result in a 70% total iron content in oxide form. Not being able to reuse this material will prevent the raw material entering the production plant from being fully utilized [5]. This study aimed to produce Fe-based alloys via SHS (Self Propagating High Temperature Synthesis) metallurgy which is attractive process technique regarding fast and low-cost production ability of cast alloys by using high metallic iron content by reducing continuous casting mill scale."

Jan 1, 2013

By Chao Li, Hongxu Li, Yang. Xie, Meng Wang, Xiangxin Hao

"With the development and utilization of resources of gold, high quality gold mine resources gradually exhausted, and refractory gold ore has become the main raw material for gold smelting, while the smelting pollutants impacting on the ecological environment is growing, in recent years there have appeared several methods of green extraction of gold such as bio-oxidation. In this paper, the life cycle assessment models about three different gold extraction technologies have been put forward. Material consumption, energy consumption and emissions during each gold production process are analyzed by using GaBi 6 software, and the environmental impact of each process is also evaluated by means of CML2001 methodology. Calculation and analysis results show that the energy consumption and material consumption are the main factors causing the environmental load; and the environmental impacts of the production process mainly attribute to the category of greenhouse effect, resources consumption and environmental acidification. Based on the evaluation, some optimization tips are proposed.IntroductionOver the past decades, as the industry policy environment continues to improve as well as gold exploration and mining smelting capacity continues increasing, gold production shows a prospecting tendency. With the wide use of gold, the demand for gold is growing, while easy smelting gold mine resources become exhausted and refractory gold ore has become the main raw material for gold smelting. In addition, pollutants impact on the ecological environment is also growing year after year.LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) makes evaluation of product “from cradle to grave” as its whole process, up to finding the sources of environmental impacts and solutions, to comprehensively account the use of resources and lower emissions. In the industrial field, life cycle can compare different technologies from different aspects of resource use, energy consumption and environmental emissions [1]. In recent years, using LCA to evaluate metallurgical industry process also has more development. The paper mainly uses LCA and scenario analysis for the gold metallurgical process by GaBi 6, to investigate the environmental impact of three different technologies of gold extraction metallurgical process. The established three evaluation models include the hydrometallurgical, pyro-metallurgical processes and bio-oxidation pretreatment methods respectively. Several environmental indexes would be selected to evaluate the environmental impact in order to find which process has smallest environmental load and some suggestion of reasonable way gold resource utilization."

Jan 1, 2014