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By Anne Kvithyld

Silicon solar cells, that convert the energy of sunlight into electric energy, are attractive sources of energy. In the production line wafers of solar cells are sliced from a multicrystaline ingot solidified unidirectionally. Recycling scrap from top and sides of such ingots is addressed. SiC and Si3N4 inclusions are a major problem. Scrap from Scan Wafer ASA is melted in a high vacuum furnace at around 1500ºC. The filters, from commercial producers, are C and SiC with 10, 20 and 30 ppi. Characterisation of inclusions before and after filtration, and in the filter itself, is performed by microscopy. Dissolution of silicon in acid and counting of the un-dissolved inclusions is also carried out. In the filter Si3N4 needles and SiC inclusions were identified. The amount of these inclusions in the filtered silicon is much less than in the input. In conclusion, filtration using SiC and C filters in vacuum system in argon atmosphere removes SiC and Si3N4 inclusions from solar cell scrap. Flow of metal through the filters is not a problem. These results are promising with scale-up to industrial application in mind.

Jan 1, 2006

By Carlos Frias

The lead-acid battery recycling is a major industrial activity (more than four million tonnes recycled lead per year) that generates large amounts of toxic wastes such as lead slag, mattes and acidic sludge, besides airborne emissions. This is a waste-producer industry that needs a definitive solution to avoid its negative environmental impact and getting a sustainable lead production. That is the principal target of the CLEANLEAD technology, which properly combines both hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical routes aiming to get zero-waste production, reducing the use of energy and resources in all phases of battery reprocessing, and consequently, greatly decreasing the operating cost. There will be no toxic emissions to land, water or air, and obtained products are pure lead metal or pure lead oxide, and commercial gypsum instead of waste sludge.

Jan 1, 2006

By Xiaowen Liu

The thermal decomposition of diaspore was investigated by thermogravimetry (TG),differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray power diffraction(XRD),infrared (IR)spectrain this paper. The thermal decomposition mechanism of diaspore was discussed according to Coat-Redfer equation. It was found that the decomposition of diaspore was carried out at 500?,and the peak temperature was 530?. The electrovalent balance of diaspore was destroyed. The previous crystal structure was changed. a- Al2O3 was obtained after thermal decomposition. The activation energy is 287KJ/mol.

Jan 1, 2006

By Sutham Niyomwas

Synthesis of alumina-mullite-silicon carbide composite (Al2O3-Al6Si2O13-SiCw) was obtained in situ by carbothermal reduction of a mixture of kaolin and two different silica sources. The carbothermal reduction was carried out in a horizontal tube furnace under flow of argon gas. The standard Gibbs energy minimization method was used to calculate the equilibrium composition of the reacting species. The synthesized products were mixtures of alumina, mullite and silicon carbide in the form of whiskers. The effects of adding two different silica sources of rice husk ash and silica powder to the mixture of kaolin and activated carbon were investigated. XRD and SEM analyses indicate complete reaction of precursors to yield Al2O3- Al6Si2O13-SiC as product powders, with the SiC having whisker morphology.

Jan 1, 2006

By Liyuan Chai

In this study, spent grain was used as an adsorbent for the removal of Hg(II) from aqueous solutions, the process parameters such as contact time, solution pH, adsorbent dose, and initial Hg(II) concentration were studied in batch experiments. The initial adsorption process was fast, 91.08% of adsorption occurred within 5 min and equilibrium was reached at around 30min. Adsorption process was found to follow pseudo-second-order kinetics. The equilibrium data were better fitted to Langmuir isotherm than Freundlich isotherm with the maximum adsorption capacity 41.36 mg/g. The structure and component of spent grain before and after adsorption of Hg(II) were investigated using scanning electron microscope(SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis(EDAX), these analysis also confirmed the adsorption of Hg(II) onto spent grain. The results indicated that spent grain had potential as a new inexpensive adsorbent for Hg(II) removal from aqueous solutions.

Jan 1, 2009

By Sheng-li Wu, Guo-liang Zhang, Bo Su

One of the major challenges for the Canadian Gen IV Super-Critical Water-cooled Reactor (SCWR) concept is the selection of fuel cladding materials. The Canadian SCWR concept will operate at a core outlet temperature of 625 oC and 25 MPa of pressure with peak cladding temperature reaching as high as 800 oC. Corrosion resistance is an important factor for material selection. Austenitic stainless steels that contain Cr contents greater than 18 wt.% are generally considered to provide adequate corrosion resistance. In this work, the pressure dependence of the corrosion of austenitic stainless steel 310 containing 24 wt% Cr is assessed at 625 C for exposures of 1000 hours to evaluate the suitability of superheated steam as a surrogate for supercritical water at 25 MPa. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) revealed that 310 exposed to different pressure conditions at 625 oC. (i.e., 0.1, 8 and 29 MPa) had generally the same type of the oxide structure, i.e., a Cr-rich oxide with the spinel structure on outer surface adjacent to the water phase. The material exposed at 8 and 29 MPa had a double layer oxide structure, with the outer oxide layer having a much larger grain size, while the samples exposed at 0.1 MPa showed only a single spinel-phase oxide layer. Cr-depleted recrystallized austenite grains were found underneath the spinel phase oxide. The adjacent large-grained austenite substrate had M23C6 carbides in the grain interior. The implications of these results are discussed.

Jan 1, 2015

By Kenneth McGowan

"The aluminum industry is the 5th largest consumer of energy and the largest consumer of energy on a per-weight basis. Process heating accounts for 25% of the energy consumed to manufacture aluminum. Consequently, the generation of this energy results in the production of a significant amount of CO2 (over 3.75 million metric tons in 2003)1. As a result, the Aluminum Industry Technology Roadmap of 2003 listed the development of improved refractory materials as a goal to reduce energy use and decrease greenhouse gas creation. The result of a R&D effort addressing this desire is the development of patented microporous refractory materials for metal contact applications in all furnace areas including the belly band. It has been demonstrated that this material can reduce energy consumption up to 38% in furnaces and significantly reduce heat loss in launder and trough systems. Furthermore the material developed is non-wetting and remains un-penetrated by metal throughout its lifetime. The material does not contribute to the formation of corundum. As a result, the energy efficiency of an older lining remains intact compared to standard refractory materials which may have an initial high insulating value (such as lightweights and board) or standard dense refractory (even with penetration inhibitors) both of which show a rapid increase in thermal conductivity as the refractory is penetrated with aluminum and formed corundumIntroductionThe aluminum industry is the second largest producer of metal in the United States, behind the iron and steel industry. It is the 5th largest consumer of energy and the largest consumer of energy on a per-weight basis. Process heating is required to melt, hold, purify, alloy, and heat treat the metal and accounts for 25% of the energy consumed to manufacture aluminum. As such, process heating is the second largest energy consuming operation. Smelting, which utilizes an electrolytic reduction process is the largest energy consuming operation1.Most process heating is accomplished through the use of fossil fuels, either directly or indirectly. The choice of fuel is dependent on a plant’s location and fossil fuel availability. Table I shows the processes impacted by refractories and the calculated BTU’s generated by usage of the respective fuels as well as the Metric Tons (MT) of metal passed through each process in 20001."

Jan 1, 2009

By Clara María Lamus Molina

The following minerals found in the residual black sands from gold mining in El Bagre Antioquia (Colombia) were identified as having major economic interest: Ilmenite (FeTiO3), with an average of 49% of TiO2, frequently altered presenting crowns; lamellaes of rutile and alteration textures; titanomagnetite with up to 25% of TiO2; magnetite (Fe3O4) in individual grains or associated with others minerals as hematite and ferromagnesian silicates rutile (TiO2) with considerable quantities of Nb2O5(0.1-3.7%Wt); zircon (ZrSiO4) with 66%Wt of ZrO2 and monazite with an average of 63.43%Wt of REE, this frequently associated to xenotime and thorite forming textures as little drops. Analysis in EPMA and SEM/EDS showed percentages of minor elements and traces, thereby clearly establishing the applications of these minerals in diverse industries. Furthermore, a detailed granumetric study of the different minerals and textural relationships among them also allowed for establishing the basis for possible processing and exploitation.

Jan 1, 2006

By Fuxing Yin, Akira Sato, Yoshiaki Ohsawa, Kohji Kawaharai

"INCRAMUTE alloy (nominally 45Mn-53Cu-2Al wt. %) has a specific damping capacity as high as 0.4, through a solid-solution and aging treatment. The damping behavior of the alloy is highly temperature-dependent and shows a peak near room temperature. The inadequate strength in the high damping condition restrains the practical application of the alloy, as structural components. Ferromagnetic MnB particles are dispersed in the alloy during induction remelting the matrix alloy in an argon atmosphere. Surface modification of the MnB particles by mechanical alloying (MA) and suitable control of the addition process cause a homogeneous distribution of MnB particles in the alloy. In the composite containing 2 wt. % MnB particles, temperature dependence of damping capacity is improved, and higher damping capacity is still retained in the temperatures over 60 °C. Meanwhile, the Young's modulus and tensile strength were also increased by about 20%. The roles of the MnB particles in improving both damping behavior and mechanical properties were also discussed.IntroductionMany viscoelastic materials, such as rubbers, polymers and plastics, have the superior ability to damp vibration and noise. However, in the applications as structural materials the high damping capacities of materials are pursued upon the satisfactory mechanical properties, especially those at elevated temperatures. Damping alloys are finding more and more applications in structures where noise and vibration ·should be ·eliminated. Specific damping capacity (SDC), defined as the ratio of the energy dissipated to the maximum vibration energy stored per cycle, is usually used to evaluate the damping capacity of alloys. INCRAMUTE damping alloy, developed by the International Copper Research Association, Inc., has a nominal composition of 45Mn-53Cu-2Al in weight percent. The high damping· microstructure of this alloy is obtained through the solution treatment at 820 °C followed by a water quench and aging at 400°C for 10 hours followed by cooling to room temperature [1]. With the heat treatment, a SDC peak ·vs. temperature of as high as 0.4 was observed in the alloy at the strain amplitude of about 10-3 while a tensile strength of about 500MPa was sustained."

Jan 1, 2000

By Qingwei Wang

Heavy metal-containing wastewater from hydrometallurgical processes of lead-zinc was treated by biologics in a 200 m3/h industrial scale experiment. The result shows that Zn concentration declined from 50.28 mg/L~240.81 mg/L to 0.21 mg/L~1.98 mg/L, Pb from 1.00 mg/L~13.47 mg/L to 0.083 mg/L~0.71 mg/L, Cu from 0.24 mg/L~2.38 mg/L to 0.059 mg/L~0.40 mg/L, Cd from 2.12 mg/L~23.47 mg/L to 0.011 mg/L~0.071 mg/L and As from 0.50 mg/L~6.00 mg/L to 0.005 mg/L~0.10 mg/L. The concentrations of the above heavy metals in the treated water were lower than that in Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard (GB8978~1996) in China. Furthermore, the treated wastewater was recycled and reused in smelter plant. Zinc content in hydrolytic sludge reached up to 34.04%, which indicates that this sludge can be used to recover valuable metals.

Jan 1, 2010

By Xinhua Wang, Qiangqiang Wang, Yubin Li, Shusen Li, Lifeng Zhang

"Numerical simulation on the fluid flow in a Flow-Control Mold (FC-Mold) were performed. The motion of inclusions were calculated. With FC-Mold, the flow pattern and surface velocity become more symmetrical, and at higher casting speed the velocity of liquid steel in the top region of the mold was largely reduced with the highest velocity of the meniscus reducing from 0.65 mis to 0.4 mis, and the meniscus shape became flatter. With FC-Mold, more inclusions approached to the surface of the slab and the amount of inclusion in the center of mold became fewer. Larger inclusions were easier to remove, however, the EM filed of the FC-Mold could hardly improve the removal of inclusions from the molten steel.IntroductionElectromagnetic brake technology is an effective method to control the flow pattern within continuous casting mold, together with other casting parameters, nozzle design and mold geometry [1-5]. Due to the interaction between the applied magnetic flux and the conductive molten steel inside the mold cavity, a force is generated in the direction opposite to the jet flow, which can decelerate the high speed steel jet from the SEN ports. The potential benefits include fewer surface and internal defects, fewer inclusion especially at higher casting speed. However if used imperfectly, electromagnetic forces can have opposite effect [6]. Numerical models are the best tool to optimize electromagnetic flow control. In the current study, numerical simulation was performed to investigate the flow field in a continuous casting FC-Mold, and the effect of different operation parameters on the flow, surface level and velocity in FC-Mold were discussed."

Jan 1, 2013

By Fathi Habashi

While it is commonly known that the precious metals and to some extent copper occur in the native state, it is less known that mercury, iron, nickel, and cobalt do occur also in the native state; the last three (Fe, Ni, and Co) usually occur together in form of an alloy. The particle size varies greatly from less than 10 microns (gold and mercury) to about 400 tons boulders (copper).

Jan 1, 1993

By Alexey Lozhko

The technical-and-economic furnace exploitation indices are considerably influenced by the system of heat utilization. In the situation of total output decrease works are forced to exploit furnaces at the partial loading, sometimes even at the idle running for the sake of steam production. The furnace exploitation in this regeme is known to cause the increase of the heat portion, taken away together with waste flue gases. The losses can be partially compensated at the expense of heat exchange efficiency development in the recuperator or heat-exchanger. One of the well-known methods, characterised by high efficiency and low expenditures is the intencification of the heat exchange process by the means of pulsation method.

Jan 1, 2006

By S. Stoyanov, M. Cross

"Silicon components containing transistor circuitry are at the heart of electronic products such as computers, mobile phones, etc. These components are connected to printed circuit boards (PCB's) using solder material that acts as the conductor for both electricity and heat. During the lifetime of a product it will undergo many thermal cycles where the chip becomes hot during product operation and then cools when the product is switched off. At the product design stage engineers undertake thermo-mechanical simulations to predict the thermal stress in the solder joints due to this thermal cycle and to ensure that the stress magnitude will not result in early fatigue-type failure. The design engineer's aim is to identify component parameters which ensure that the solder will survive beyond a certain number of thermal cycles.The aim of integrating computational mechanics and optimization tools together is to speed up dramatically the design process. From viewpoint of a design engineer in the electronics manufacturing sector, these tools can be used to quickly estimate key design parameters (i.e. material properties, product dimensions, etc) that will guarantee the required product performance. In this paper a modeling approach coupling computational mechanics techniques with numerical optimization is presented and demonstrated. The integrated modeling framework is obtained by coupling the multi-physics framework - PHYSICA - with the design optimisation tool- VisuaLDOC. Thermo-mechanical simulations are presented that predict the creep strains in solder material. Different numerical optimization procedures: Direct and Response Surface based optimization plus Design of Experiments, are tested as a part of this modeling framework."

Jan 1, 2001

By F. Z. Utyashev

The present work considers the essence of fragmentation: on the level of a simple model as a material response to the curvature accumulated by it at large deformations. It is on this basis that the correlation between curvature and fragment sizes is determined. It is shown that at deformation the area of curvature center inevitably changes. It is revealed that a specific value of variation of center surface area, i.e. ^As parameter, is numerically equal to the value of curvature acquired by a material. Minimum sizes of fragments and grains depending on ^As have been estimated, and the dependence of this parameter on strain has been established. Besides, the present paper considers the effects exerted by curvature center geometry, material distortion, directions of deformation and thermal warming up in the localization zones on structure refinement when various techniques are applied.

Jan 1, 2006

By Holger Cordes

X-ray diffraction has long been used for qualitative and quantitative mineral analysis but Rietveld data analysis is still an under utilized method for mineral exploration and processing applications. In this full-profile approach the structural parameters of each mineral phase, together with experimental parameters, are refined by least-squares methods to minimize the difference between observed and calculated diffraction patterns. The result is a standard-less, quantitative analysis of the mineral abundance in the sample that is more accurate and considerably faster compared to traditional methods. The TOPAS software package combines a user-friendly interface with a unique approach to resolve overlapping peaks. Automated analysis options are also available and significantly reduce analysis time for routine samples. Several examples on a wide range of naturally occurring rock types are shown that illustrate the capabilities and limitations of the method. The examples include several options for the quantification of amorphous constituents like volcanic glasses.

Jan 1, 2006

By Yuanbo Zhang

Zinc leach residues produced by hydrometallurgical zinc plants contain many valuable elements (zinc, iron, lead, gallium, indium silver, etc), while they have not been utilized effectively hitherto. In this paper, a new process of flotation-reduction roasting-magnetic separation to recover these valuable elements from zinc leach residues is developed on a basis of mineralogy investigations of them. The results show that silver concentrate with grade of 4321.6 g/t and recovery of 80.69% have been obtained, using 1750 g/t Na2S as conditioner, 750 g/t ammonium dibutyl dithiophosphate and SN-9 (assistant collector) as combined collector and 100 g/t terpenic oil as frother, if zinc leach residues with 523 g/t silver are floated at pH = 5.0. When the flotation tailings are subjected to reduction roasting at 1100? for 2 h, the volatilizations of zinc, lead and indium are over 96%. After roasted products are treated by wet-grinding and magnetic separation, the grade of gallium and gallium in the concentrates achieved respectively reaches 1805 g/t and 1536g/t, and the recovery of them is high to 94.67% and 93.20%, respectively.

Jan 1, 2006

By Sergio N. Monteiro

Polymeric matrix composites with dispersed hard particles are being as wear resistant tools in industrial polishing operations. In the present work, the microstructure of epoxy composites with different amounts of embedded diamond particles, up to 30 wt.%, was investigated for the effect on fracture characteristics. It was found that the introduction of diamond particles promoted an increase the porosity of the epoxy matrix. Moreover, the particle morphology associated with a non-uniform distribution within the matrix was responsible for the nucleation of cracks that caused rupture of the composites.

Jan 1, 2006

By Elli Nurminen

In this work the thermodynamics of the metallic sulphate decomposition reactions were studied through thermodynamical calculations and thermogravimetric methods. The decomposition temperatures and mechanisms were determined for cupric sulphate, ferric sulphate and also for industrial flue dust from a copper flash smelting process. The aim was to determine the thermodynamic conditions for sulphate decomposition and to estimate whether the reactions are kinetically likely to take place in the flash smelting process heat recovery equipment. The information is essential in CFD-modelling of the reactions taking place in the boiler and for optimising the process.

Jan 1, 2006

By José Carlos D?Abreu

The Tecnored process is a new ironmaking technology, developed on a unique approach that combined empirical and theoretical knowledge backed by extensive tests carried out in a dedicated pilot-plant and with close support of universities and research centers. Campaigns in the pilot-plant focused on operate different reactors of different sizes, including a full size slice of the industrial furnace. This approach provided actual conditions to develop the main features of the process such as the internal dimensions, raceway pattern, thermal and gaseous profiles, etc, besides provide reliable data to feed and calibrate a specific mathematical process modeling. This paper presents the first computer model used by the Tecnored technical staff, focusing the behavior of a self reducing agglomerate in the upper shaft of the furnace (zone of solid state reduction). Some results of this model are given and discussed.

Jan 1, 2006