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By W. K. Connor, O&apos

The U.S. Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), conducted over 30 hours of melting tests to vitrify simulated low-level radioactive wastes from the INEL Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC). Five separate waste compositions were investigated, each consisting of noncontarninated soil from the RWMC and surrogate materials used to simulate the actual buried wastes. The RWMC soil and five waste compositions were melted in a 50-lb, single-phase electric arc furnace with a water-cooled shell. These tests were conducted to determine melting parameters in preparation for a large-scale melting campaign to be conducted in the Bureau's 1-metric ton (mt), water-cooled-wall, 3-phase electric arc fumace. Bulk chemical composition was determined for each of the feed materials and for the slag, metal, fume solids, and offgas furnace products, and distributions were calculated for the key elements. The material balance for the furnace operation indicates that from 63 to 84 pct of the feed reported to the slag. Cerium, used as the surrogate for the radionuclides in the wastes, demonstrated an extremely strong affinity for the slag product. Although slag temperatures as low as 1250° C were recorded when melting the RWMC soil, temperatures in excess of 1600° C were necessary to achieve the fluidity required for a successful slag tap.

Jan 1, 1994

By K. J. Murphy, A. R. Smith, A. P. Odorski

"The need for large quantities of oxygen for use in metallurgical processes was a major driving force in the commercialization of tonnage air separation plants. Oxygen, nitrogen and argon impact the quality, energy efficiency and environmental aspects of metals production. Cryogenic air separation processes have been used to supply most industrial requirements, however, newer technologies are available or under development to meet the needs of today's and tomorrow's metallurgical processes. This paper reviews the technical features and state of development of adsorption, chemical, cryogenic and membrane technologies. The technologies are compared in terms of plant size, oxygen purity and pressure, nitrogen and argon co-production, product use pattern and back-up requirements. Computer control systems are described that optimize operation over varying load patterns and ambient conditions; substantially lowering energy consumption. IntroductionOxygen production totalled 390 billion cubic feet in 1987. Although current production is lower than the peak of 455 billion cubic feet reached in 1979, oxygen remains the fifth leading chemical product manufactured in the u.s. (1) Metals manufacturing and fabrication accounts for sixty percent of the oxygen consumed in the u.s. Oxygen use in the steel industry consists of air enrichment for conversion of iron ore, purification of the iron in basic oxygen or other furnaces, and for cutting and welding the finished steel product. Nonferrous ores are smelted in oxygen enriched atmospheres to reduce energy consumption and increase capture of sulfur compounds to meet environmental requirements. In the future oxygen usage is expected to become even more important in metals production as energy costs increase, environmental standards become more stringent, and as new coal based processes become commercialized. Oxygen usage per ton of metal in the new direct reduction processes can be up to ten times higher than traditional steel making."

Jan 1, 1988

By A. K. Kyllo, G. G. Richards

"The formation and control of accretions is an important aspect of process operation for gas injection. The nature of the accretion formed can have a considerable effect on a process, especially on the life of the lance or the refractories in the tuyere region. There are three basic shapes of accretion formed on tuyeres; pipes, hemispheres and hollow-cored hemispheres. However, there are wide variations within these shapes. Generally, the type of accretion formed will depend on the injector design, certain operating parameters and the physical properties of the bath materials. This paper seeks to collect the results of previous and current physical and mathematical modelling together with data gathered from operating furnaces, to obtain a better understanding of the effects of process design and operating variables on accretion formation.IntroductionAn important consideration in the design of a gas injection process is the possible freezing of the bath either around the tuyere or on the lance. With proper design, freezing may be controlled to provide protection of the lance or refractory, and to avoid blockage. Improper design may lead to tuyere blockage and significant refractory or lance erosion. In view of this, a good understanding of the heat transfer in the injection region is essential.While tuyere blockage has been a persistent problem since the inception of submerged gas injection processes, the problem of accretion formation was not studied in detail until the development of the shrouded tuyere by Savard and Lee. A number of studies relating to accretion formation have been carried out since then, but there is still little information available relating the nature of the accretion formed to the design of the injection system.The build up of materials on lances is a similar problem, and may also be either beneficial or detrimental, depending on circumstances. Unfortunately, there is even less information available regarding build up on lances than there is relating to tuyere accretions. While the form of build up on lances is generally a simple coating of the lance, accretions on tuyeres tend to be more complex. Tuyere accretions tend to occur in one of three basic forms: pipe, hemispherical and hollow-cored hemispherical (Figure 1). However, there appears to be a considerable variation within these forms."

Jan 1, 1996

By William Gregg

Recent environmental and workplace safety legislation has Imposed more stringent limits on the amount and type of particulate emitted Into the air. In the past, the mass of particles contained In a volume of air was the governing criteria. Now the size and precise chemical nature of the particulate must be known and controlled In addition to it's ?mass. Processors of metallic materials have to implement stricter control practices and more efficient control equipment to meet the new regulations. Pulse-Jet dust collector systems are being used to control particulate emissions from various process gas streams. Pulse-jets :are also being used for maintaining a healthy environment In the workplace. this paper will discuss the impact of these regulations, the control techniques used to comply with such regulations, and the equipment needed for compliance.

Jan 1, 1992

By P. C. Chaubal

The overall kinetics of oxidation of single partic1es of chalcopyrite have been studied for temperatures up to 1273 K. The experiments were conducted in a stationary bed reactor using a non-isothermal technique. Any mass and heat transfer effects on the kinetics of oxidation were eliminated by using a high-enough gas flowrate. Up to temperatures of 873 K, pore-bl1ocking kinetics were applicable, whereas above 873 K, power-law kinetics gave a satisfactory fit of the data. The activation energy was 215 kJ/mol below 754 Kand 23.7 kJ/mol above 1,060 K. Predominance area diagrams were constructed at various temperatures and used in conjunction with X-ray analyses of partially oxidized samples to determine the intermediate phases formed during the reaction. The analysi1s also provides a justification for the kinetic models used. The results indicate that the reaction rate is first order with respect to oxygen concentration and inversely proportional to the square of the particle size throughout the ranges of temperature studied.

Jan 1, 1985

By Bogidar Mihaylov

A laboratory study was conducted on continuous precipitation of copper, cadmium, mercury and arsenic using thiourea, thioacetamide, sodium sulfide and ammonium sulfide as precipitating agents. Depending on the experimental conditions the metals precipitate with the sulfide donors at different orders and rates. These differences were employed as a basis of several techniques for continuous separation of copper and arsenic, cadmium and arsenic, mercury and copper, and copper, mercury and arsenic. The separation of the metals from industrial waste solutions was also studied. The precipitates obtained were inspected using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, atomic absorption spectrometer and plasma particle counter.

Jan 1, 1992

By Jerome P. Downey

Technologies developed within the field of extractive metallurgy to recover, concentrate, and purify metals and industrial minerals from ores, have served as the foundation for all of the subsequent environmental remediation, materials recycling, and waste management technologies. This paper discusses the application of classical extractive engineering principles to the development of a thermal process for the recovery of mercury from solid wastes. Process development is presented as a series of logical stages, which begin with a thorough characterization of the site-specific waste, move on to bench and pilot scale testing of the process options, and end with a functional process flowsheet. This paper also presents thermodynamic data on many mercury species of interest to the minerals, power, and chemical industries. These data can be used to model the speciation and recovery of the mercury as a function of various process parameters.

Jan 1, 2003

By Lionel Ryan

In 1996, the Dominican Republic operation of Falconbridge (Falcondo) developed a 5-year Process Control Plan in conjunction with the corporate Process Control group located in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. This plan was further refined into an analysis of the areas of the highest potential economic return for the company with the reduction shaft furnace operation being the most promising. Historically, the reduction plant, which comprises 12 shaft furnaces, has been the bottleneck of ferronickel production. Since 1996 there has been a history of control development, and the current status is that all 12 furnaces are using advanced model-based multi- variable predictive control. The combination of advanced process control (APC), improved control system performance and improved process information management has resulted in an increased throughput of 6% per shaft furnace and a reduction in operating costs of 4.5 US cent/lb of Ni. This paper reviews some of the major milestones that have been achieved in this development Keywords: Advanced Process Control; Model Based Predictive Control; Connoisseur, Reduction Shatt Furnace; Nickel Laterite Ore; Ferronickel; MonitorMV

Jan 1, 2004

By Janusz Majta

The aim of this work is to investigate the control of microstructure evolution through variation of particular deformation parameters in the two-phase (intercritical) region. Niobium-microalloyed and low-carbon steels were investigated. A detailed examination of the factors affecting the ferrite microstructures of tested steels indicated that there were distinct advantages of finishing at temperatures in the austenite-ferrite region. The various results of deformation in the two-phase region are presented. Consequently, the influence of the most important process parameters on the microstructure evolution and mechanical response of the material is determined. The prime objective of the realized research work is the determination of relationship between the history of deformation and final product quality i.e. texture and mechanical properties. To reach the objective, the constitutive equations are proposed for modeling the effects of the hot-deformation process occurring in the austenite and austenite-ferrite region of low carbon and microalloyed steels on the mechanical properties of the resulting product. These models link advanced, finite element approaches simulating metal flow and heat transfer during hot-plastic deformation with constitutive equations describing microstructural processes and mechanical properties.

Jan 1, 2003

By Yukio Ishikawa

Sumitomo Metal Mining Co,. Ltd. (SMM) has been producing 22,000 t/y of electrolytic nickel at Niihama by nickel matte electrorefining process since 1970. Although the matte electrorefining is an established process and the productivity has been greatly improved in the last 20 years, SMM has intensively developed the chloride process for the nickel production since 1970's. The nickel and cobalt refining process involving solvent extraction and electrowinning from the chloride solution has been successfully developed for the treatment of the mixed sulphide in 1975. The first application of chlorine leach to the anode slime has been succeeded since 1986. Based on those technology, the matte chlorine leach electrowinning process (MCLE) has been developed as an alternation to the relatively old technology of matte electrorefining. The new process offers significant cost down and excellent quality of the product. In 1986, the feasibility of MCLE was confirmed by the test work using the integlated pilot plant. The innovation of the chlorine leach process has been undertaken by this work. The new refining process can be divided into three stages including chlorine leach stage, purification stage and electrowinning stage. More than 99 % of nickel was extracted in atmospheric chlorine leach. Although copper ion was used for electron carrier in the chlorine leach, the excess copper from the feed matte is bled off from the leach circuit by de copperizing electrolysis. The copper ion of the pregnant solution is fixed on nickel matte by the cementation reaction. The nickel matte containing copper is processed in the chlorine leach. In the purification circuit, cobalt, iron and other impurities were removed from the nickel chloride solution. The nickel chloride solution is then fed into the electrowinning cell. Based on the process established, the new plant with a capacity of 330 t/M electrolytic nickel was commissioned in order to obtain the engineering data for design of the full scale plant in 1989. The performance of the plant was fully satisfied and the new process demonstrated the potential application of modern process control.

Jan 1, 1992

By J. J. Kim

In a study of buildup in a green-feed reverberatory furnace, it was determined that approximately half of the crucible area has a moderate buildup of 25 in. or less, and that the area extending 45 f t from the burner end of the furnace has only a slight buildup. The false bottom, averaging 6 in. in thickness, was found to cover the entire crucible area. The stratification of Cr2O3, A12O3, and SiO2 occurs throughout the slag layer; this phenomenon is the principal reason for the formation of the false bottom in the green-feed reverberatory furnace. The false bottom is caused primarily by the settling of FeO*(A1,Cr),03 aggregates, which are derived mainly from returned converter slag. The false bottom can be transformed to a solid permanent buildup in the furnace, particularly when the matte is completely withdrawn. From the material balance of Al2O3 and Cr2O3 around the furnace, It is estimated that the average rate of aluminum chromite accumulation is approximately 0.3 ton per day or less.

Jan 1, 1976

By Thor Pedersen

Elkem's technologies for the processing of waste materials, dusts, sludges and other residues, are based on the use of their Multi-Purpose Furnace as the primary processing component. The Multi-Purpose Furnace? is an electric slag resistance reduction furnace equipped with a hot media, Modular Freeze Lining and Elkem's proprietary, air tight electrode seals. The oil cooled? freeze lining allows specific heat fluxes 2 to 3 times higher than furnaces lined with conventional refractory. Reduction activities taking place within the furnace are free from the reoxidation potential of infiltrated air as Elkem's electrode seals are positively gas tight. Small quantities of highly concentrated off gas of controlled composition are produced to suit the requirements of downstream processing. The high electrical thermal efficiency achieved by generating heat within the slag itself, combined with the ability to operate at high melting rates and intense power density, makes the Multi-Purpose Furnace 9 an unique implement for the design of furnace products. These characteristics are utilized in the processing example cited, "Elkem's EAF Dust Processing Technology", which combines two proven technologies in an economically feasible system for the recovery of contained metal values from K061 wastes at the same time producing a disposable slag product. The portion of the example dealing with the condensation of zinc was prepared with the assistance of Imperial Smelting Processes, Limited of Bristol, England with whom Elkem has a non- exclusive license.

Jan 1, 1990

By Kandipati Sreenivasarao

Ion flotation is a promising separation process for continuously removing toxic metal ions from dilute process effluents. After treating the effluent with appropriate surfactant(s), the metal- bearing species adsorb onto the surface of rising gas bubbles and can be collected as foams. Suitable collectors have been identified for most of the elements of the periodic table. However, a better understanding of the thermodynamic, kinetic and engineering principles that determine the performance of ion flotation systems would facilitate commercial utilization of this technology. A model system of sodium dodecylsulfate-ethanol has been studied for the removal of Cu (11) from dilute solutions, using laboratory-scale flotation columns. This paper reports the effects of the air flow rate, solution height, foam drainage zone height and col1ector:metal ion ratio on the flotation kinetics, ultimate recovery of metal, flotation product grade, foam losses and effluent quality. Preliminary results for Pb (11) removal are also reported.

Jan 1, 1993

By Neil Smith

Mineral processing plants typically procure a range of industrial services from contractors. Their satisfaction and value received is directly affected by how the services are procured, rationalized and delivered. Conventional purchasing strategies often focus on price rather than on optimizing the service relationship between supplier and customer. The nature of this relationship may have the greatest potential to reduce costs and enhance production. It has been documented that a service involves simultaneous production and consumption. A high degree of customer involvement is often necessary for a successful outcome and the expectations and attitudes of the customer can positively or negatively affect delivery of the service. This indicates that the customer can enhance or diminish their own satisfaction and value received and the supplier cannot act alone for best results. The Optimax? Program for industrial services is a service delivery framework whereby a customer and supplier work together to raise the efficiency of the service exchange. The Optimax? Program is intended to help the customer optimize costs and maximize production by connecting the customer and supplier through shared information and objectives. This paper will review the basic nature of services, provide a couple of examples of conventional procurement strategies for services and outline the features of the Optimax? Program. A Case Study showing recent results from implementing the Optimax? Program will be included.

Jan 1, 2006

By Wei Liu

A new process for extracting cadmium from the electric precipitated dust produced by ISP process was studied. A leaching rate of 89.1% of cadmium was attained by leaching the dust with NH3?H2O-(NH4)2SO4 system under the best leaching conditions: ratio of liquid to solid(l:s)=2.5, c(NH3):c(NH4+)=3:5, total concentration of ammonium and ammonia=8 mol?L-1, leaching time= 1.5h, temperature=35. The most troublesome impurity of lead could be deposited from the leached out solution automatically after put it static more than 15h when the total concentration of zinc and cadmium was up to 45gL-1 , and the final concentration of lead was 0.0047 gL-1, which meant 99% of it was removed. Metallic cadmium which contained cadmium more than 99% was prepared by electrowinning under the conditions: current density=750Am-2, total concentration of Cd2+ and Zn2+>25gL-1. The current efficiency was about 87% and the energy consumption for every ton of cadmium was about 548KWht-1. Main impurities of the metallic cadmium were copper and zinc and all of they could be got rid of in the following pyrometallurgical refining step.

Jan 1, 2006

By David J. Roha

"The harsh environment of the Carbothermic Aluminum process makes necessary numerical modeling as a means of process visualization and understanding. A brief survey of the various numerical models, with emphasis on CFD, applied in the development of the process is presented.IntroductionThe environment of the Alcoa Carbothermic reactor is necessarily a harsh one, with temperatures approaching 2100 °C and plenty of reactive dust and vapors. As such, it is difficult to directly observe what is actually taking place. Thermocouples can last for a few minutes but are eventually destroyed. The openings to optical pyrometers become occluded with dust and condensation. Graphite sheathing embrittles, reacts away or becomes clogged with condensate. Dip-samples on steel rods are routinely taken, but their interpretation is often unclear.Those measurements that can be reliably taken are invaluable, but often do not provide a complete picture. Therefore from the very inception of the project both physical and computer based models have played an important role. Modeling provides an intuitive understanding of the processes that might be taking place and in very many cases approach quantitative prediction. I will briefly touch upon computer-based modeling performed at Alcoa over 12 years of the Carbothermic project, with special emphasis on CFD. The explanation of physical models is perhaps best left for those with the greatest familiarity with them"

Jan 1, 2012

By Yong Hack Lee

Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) dust is generated when scraps are treated in the electric arc furnace and usually classified as hazardous industrial waste in most countries. EAF dust usually contains 15 to 25% of zinc and 3% of lead. It is usually treated in rotary kiln (Waelz process) or landfilled after a solidification and stabilization treatment. Numerous methods have been proposed as the EAF dust treatment technology, but few of them are in operation as a commercial scale except the Waelz process. Korea Zinc performed a plant test in which 600 tons of EAF dust was treated using TSL (Top Submerged Lance) technology. The TSL technology is a low cost, proven technology for processing zinc-bearing residues. The EAF dust was first de-chlorinated and fed to the TSL furnace. Finally, clean slag satisfying toxicity criteria was generated and valuable metals such as zinc and lead were recovered as fume oxide. The fume oxide was de-halogenated by sodium carbonate and sent to zinc refinery to recover zinc and lead. The recovery of zinc and lead was 90% and 93%, respectively. Most of the dioxin in the EAF dust was discomposed so dioxin less than the Korean regulation limit was detected in the offgas, which proves that the TSL technology is the best solution to treat EAF dust.

Jan 1, 2006

By J. Partinen

Drying is a unit process which has numerous applications in metallurgical process industry. Kumera Technology Center, being a worldwide equipment and process supplier, has developed sophisticated solutions for both direct and indirect drying. In conventional direct drum drying, the energy is taken from combustion of fossil fuels, requiring energy input and emitting considerable amount of off gases. In modem copper smelters, thermal energy from the off gases is recovered in waste heat boilers making the steam available. Using that steam as the energy source for concentrate drying, the total volume of off gases can be considerably reduced and releasing of harmful combustion gases into the atmosphere can be avoided. Kumera Technology Center has recently developed and promotes a new steam drying process for drying of copper concentrates. In the development of the new dryer, Kumera's approach has been to combine the best properties of both the steam dryers and the drum dryers. In the design special attention has been paid to overcome problems of excessive wear and clogging and to reduce the required maintenance operations. In this paper the environmental issues and energy consumption related to both direct and indirect drying processes are discussed. The estimated operation costs and emission levels are compared, based on calculations and the data collected from industry. Finally, the development project of the Kumera Steam Dryer is briefly reviewed

Jan 1, 1999

By Marcela C. Santini, Luiz A. Teixeira

"Surface conditioning (also referred as etching) of plastics prior to metallization is generally conducted with sulfuric I chromic acid solutions. Although these baths perform well technically, the presence of Cr (VI) imposes serious operating problems of an environmental nature. The present work reports ·the results of a study of surface conditioning o(ABS using solutions based. on sulfuric acid, with hydrogen peroxide and/or nitric acid, replacing chromic acid, as oxidants. Process performance was evaluated by SEM and by the uniformity and adherence of electroless nickel coatings applied on selected conditioned samples. The results showed that the evaluated types of solutions could be optimized to perform as well as the chromic-based baths, with a much superior environmental quality.IntroductionMetallization of plastics is normally undertaken for either decorative or functional purposes. Through metallization, the specific properties of plastics such as light weight, design flexibility, and low-cost of manufacturing are enhanced by the addition of properties usually associated with metals. These include reflectiveness, abrasion resistance, electrical conductivity, and a variety of decorative effects (1).The available processes that can be used for metallization of plastics are vacuum metallization or vapoµr deposition; indirect metallization and plating (1). Plating can be sub-divided into electroless plating and electroplating. In electroless plating, metal ions in aqueous solution are deposited on the .activated plastic surface by oxi-reduction reactions without the aid of an external electric potential, forming a thin metallic layer. This electroless deposited film has two functions: (a) it provides an electrically conductive substrate that allows further coating by electroplating; and (b) provides a secure bond between the plastic substrate and the electroplated layer (1,2). In case the electroless metallic part requires an additional layer for finishing purposes, or just an increase in thickness, the part can be additionally electroplated with a· variety of metals - in most cases those are copper, nickel or chromium (3)."

Jan 1, 2000

By Yousef Mohassab, Feng Chen, Hong Yong Sohn, Mohamed Elzohiery

The determination of reduction degree in a DR process is sensitive to the total iron in the ore and DRI. An accurate and high throughput analysis method for total iron has been developed. Titration of the solution after tin(II) chloride reduction of ferric ion is a widely used method for iron analysis. However, it is a multistep method that requires many chemical reagents and much time. In this work, an ICP-OES analysis method with higher or equivalent accuracy compared with the titrimetric method was developed. This method has much higher throughput and demands fewer chemical reagents compared with the titrimetric method. In this paper, a comparison of the two methods is presented.

Jan 1, 2016