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By Zhihua Wang

Through metallurgical calculation and process analysis based on metallurgical theory, it is aimed to raise the concentration of smelting oxygen and improve the update speed of reaction interface, accelerate the reaction and achieve a high-intensity smelting at the stage of converting. The PM plant has launched a theoretical research on model of high-intensity converting aiming at increasing the oxygen concentration of converting, carried out transformation of Kaldo furnace converting system, performed a series of industrial trial operations, conducted multiple rounds of tracking test and data comparison in reducing the furnace cycle, lowering the unit consumption of fuel and stabilizing the furnace lining life. The move has practically tested and verified the correctness of high-intensity smelting theory.

By Zhou Jun

Water-quenched samples were taken from a commercial flash furnace at three levels along its reaction shaft during operation at high feed rate. The samples were subjected to a series of analysis and observation. Such processes of the feed in reaction shaft as oxidation, desulfurization, melting, slag and matte formation and etc., variations of particle size along axial and radical direction of the shaft are investigated. The following smelting mechanism in reaction shaft named as “Multi-particle and multi-phase fusion model” is proposed: (1) Fragmentation and collision of concentrate particles take place simultaneously in reaction shaft with particle size growing up. Collision produces large-size “unit melt” which falls into the reaction layer in the settler bath. (2) In the settler reaction layer below the shaft, weak bath smelting reactions take place among the shaft products, producing final matte and slag which separate into two layers. (3) The processes in the shaft are all progressive along the whole height of the shaft. The predominant reaction in the shaft is oxidation, not reduction.

By T. Shibaraki

A new larger, more efficient and economical Mitsubishi furnace line at Naoshima was put into operation in May 1991. Naoshima Smelter had produced previously about 230,000 mtpy anode copper with two smelter lines, i.e., a conventional reverberatory furnace line and Mitsubishi furnace line, which had been shutdown at the same time of the start up of the new smelter. At the beginning of the operation, there were several initial problems at the area of off gas trains and feeding system. By overcoming them now the process has been continuing satisfactory operation at the design rate. The paper describes about the design concepts and the actual operation of the new smelter.

Jan 1, 1993

By A. M. T. S. Bandara

The solubility of rare earth (RE) salts in aqueous solutions depends on many factors including the type of cations and anions in solution, their concentrations, temperature and the type of solid precipitated. Experiments were conducted using anhydrous La2(SO4)3 and Ce2(SO4)3⋅8H2O as solids and lanthanum(III) perchlorate prepared by dissolving La2O3 in HClO4 solutions as RE-sources. Solutions of H2SO4, H3PO4 and their mixtures in the presence or absence of Na+, Ca2+, Fe(III) or Al(III) as perchlorates served as test solutions. Saturated solutions and precipitated solids were assayed and characterized using standard techniques to show that the La(III) and Ce(III) ions precipitate as hydrated sulphates, phosphates or double salts with sodium, depending upon the solution composition. The change in solubility of RE-salts with solution composition and temperature is the result of the composite effect of changes in solubility products (pKSP) of salts, pKa of acids and other equilibrium constants for ion-association.

By Sabine Knoll

The thermodynamic properties of four liquid ternary zinc alloys, Au-Sn-Zn, Ag-Sn-Zn, AI-Sn Zn and Cu-In-Zn were measured with an electromotive force (emf) method at three or four cross-sections with an constant X:Sn or Cu-In ratio. At the Au-Sn-Zn and AI-Sn-Zn system calorimetric measurements were also carried out in order to compare the integral enthalpy of mixing from the direct measurements with the data of the emf measurements, which were derived by Gibbs-Duhem integration.

Jan 1, 2003

By Ki Joo Sim, Sung Beom An, Joonho Lee, Minsoo Shin

Valorization of the electrical arc furnace oxidizing slag by coke was carried out by the reduction of iron oxide in the slag. Since the reduction of iron oxide by solid carbon is an endothermic reaction, supply of heat energy is required. In addition, slag has a low thermal conductivity; traditional fuel injection is not suitable for this reaction. Microwave can be used to supply heat energy to the system. Commercial oxidizing slag was reduced by coke under the microwave irradiation (1.7 kW, 2.45 GHz). The maximum recovery ratio of iron was 87%. In addition, slag composition modification was attempted to use the remaining slag for a mixture in cement clinker. Free-CaO in the slag was successfully suppressed, and the use of the remaining slag as a potential mixture was confirmed.

Jan 1, 2014

By Sabine Knott

The thermodynamic properties of four liquid ternary zinc alloys, Au-Sn-Zn, Ag-Sn-Zn, AI-Sn- Zn and Cu-In-Zn were measured with an electromotive force (emf) method at three or four cross-sections with an constant X:Sn or Cu-In ratio. At the Au-Sn-Zn and AI-Sn-Zn system calorimetric measurements were also carried out in order to compare the integral enthalpy of mixing from the direct measurements with the data of the emf measurements, which were derived by Gibbs-Duhem integration.

Jan 1, 2003

By I. Gaballah

About forty percent of the SOx emissions are generated during the processing of metal sulfides of Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, etc. Although new technologies for metal sulfide's smelting allow the production of H2S04 with a reasonable cost and decrease the emissions of sulfur oxides, the generated quantity of SOx is considered as a serious threat to environment. This paper suggests alternatives for low temperature processing of complex sulfide ores or concentrates 'CSO or CSC' under neutral, reducing and chlorinating atmospheres or their combination. At T > 400 "C, The neutral and reducing treatments allow the decomposition of pyrite and the partial recovery of sulfur as So and H2S. At 300 "C, the chlorinating treatment of CSC is fast, exothermic and allows the separation of FeC13 from the valuable elements' chlorides. It also generates SyCIx that can be either reduced by H2 or hydrolyzed in presence of sodium sulfide. The recovery rate of elemental sulfur with respect to the sulfur input exceeds 90 %.

Jan 1, 1999

By Nickolas J. Themelis

The role of copper in the economy will not diminish in the 21st century. Following the tenets of industrial ecology, production and use of copper must take into account both human needs and also how to minimize "collateral" effects on the environment. Dispersive uses will be phased out and post-use recovery of copper will increase. This will result into an advantage for smelting processes that can accommodate mixed metal scrap and waste streams. The bath smelting processes of Noranda and Mitsubishi will continue to make progress but the dominance of the Outokumpu flash smelting will not be challenged until the Noranda reactor overcomes the obstacles to the direct production of copper, thus eliminating the need for a converter.

Jan 1, 1999

By Richard D. Hagni

Microscopic examination of selected, representative, unweathered samples of Birmingham, Alabama, Silurian, sedimentary iron ores has fully revealed the nature of the phosphorous-bearing mineral grains. The grains are composed of carbonate-fluorapatite (collophane), range in size from 1 um to 2.25 mm, and exhibit varied types of intergrowth with hematite. Modal analyses conducted under cathodolumi-nescence have provided quantitative data on the a3undance of each of 15 types of phosphorous-bearing mineral grains and made it possible to assess the potential phosphorous liberation from four types of iron ore. The results indicate that 27% of the total phosphorous contained in the iron ores in the western part of the Birmingham district can be expected to be liberated by fine grinding; 60% for ores in the eastern part of the district.

Jan 1, 1982

By M. Pakala, Z. Fan, Ray Y. Lin

Deposition of hard chromium coatings using electrodeposition is accompanied by emission of hexavalent chromium mists which is a carcinogenic. Hence alternative chromium deposition technologies are being investigated. Sputter deposition is a strong candidate to economically deposit hard chromium coatings in an environmentally friendly way. Chromium coatings of 2-3 µ m thickness were deposited on plain carbon steel coupons using RF magnetron sputter deposition. Depositions were carried out with 0 to 22 vol% nitrogen in the plasma. Structure of the coatings was studied using x-ray diffraction analysis With increasing nitrogen contents, formation of the two nitride phases was observed. The pure chromium phase was detected in coatings with up to 7% nitrogen in the sputtering gas. The solid solution of nitrogen in the pure Cr phase coating was identified by shifts of Cr x-ray diffraction peaks to higher d-spacing. The microhardness of the coatings deposited at a substrate temperature of 200°C showed an increase in hardness with increasing nitrogen content from 600 kgf/mm2 (5.9 GPa) at 0% nitrogen to I250 kgf/mm2 (I2.25 GPa) at 9.5 % nitrogen and a subsequent decrease in hardness to I 100 kgf/mm2 (11 GPa) beyond 9.5 % nitrogen in the sputtering gas. This corresponds to the formation of the hard Cr2N phase, at 9.5 % nitrogen, and CrN phase, at I5.7 % nitrogen. The reported bulk hardness values of Cr2N and CrN are I600 kgf/mm2 (I5.7 GPa) and I 100 kgf/mm2 (11 GPa) respectively. For pure Cr phase coatings, there is a slight increase in hardness for coatings deposited at 7. I % nitrogen from that without nitrogen in the sputtering gas. This could possibly result from the solid solution strengthening of the Cr lattice by nitrogen. For films deposited at 200°C, phases of the deposited films seem to be the overwhelming factor in controlling the microhardness.

Jan 1, 1998

By Fathi Habashi

The recovery of uranium from wet process phosphoric acid was applied on industrial scale in the 1940's by using octylpyrophosphoric acid as an extractant. Later, more efficient reagents were used, e.g., di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid and actylphenyl phosphoric acid. In the 1970's the rare earths in Kola phosphate were recovered in Finland and recently (1997) in Norway using HNO, as a leaching agent and di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid as solvent. It was demonstrated later on laboratory scale that both uranium and rare earths could be extracted from the rock by tributyl phosphate but at different pH values provided that the rock is leached with nitric or hydrochloric acids instead of the commonly used sulfuric. This new concept opens the way to the possibility of treating phosphate rock by in-situ, dump, or vat leaching for the recovery of phosphate values as well as uranium and the rare earths. Another solvent extraction process is used industrially for the purification of phosphoric acid using butyl and amyl alcohols.

Jan 1, 1998

By Gus Van Weert

Solvent extraction of iron from zinc refinery liquors has been investigated before, mainly on the MEHPA / HC1 stripping combination. Leakage of chloride into the zinc electrolyte and the costs of handling the ferric chloride eluate have prevented this option from being adopted. This work explores the stripping of the ferric loaded organic phase with nitric acid to take advantage of the possibility of regenerating up to 6N nitric acid, and clean spheroidal hematite production by autoclave treatment of ferric nitrate solution. The work was carried out with DEHPA (di 2-ethyl-hexyl phosphoric acid) in kerosine. Degradation testing proved the DEHPA to be very stable, when exposed to nitric acid solutions up to 6N and temperatures up to 70" C over a period of five days. Ferric iron was removed completely froma synthetic hot acid leach liquor, irrespective of the DEHPA concentration. Stripping the ferric turned out to be the problematic step. Although the stripping efficiency was considerable better at 50 than at 20° C, it decreased with increasing DEHPA/Fe ration in the organic phase. Eluates of no more than 5-10 g/l ferric nitrate were produced. surprisingly, nitric acid was found to be a less efficient stripping agent than sulphuric at equivalent normality and its efficacy levelled off above 4N. It was concluded that DEHPA does not appear to be the S.X. reagent to take advantage of the low cost autoclave decomposition of ferric nitrate opportunity in zinc hydrometallurgy and that another S.X. reagent, also resistant to nitric acid, but based on weaker compound formation is needed.

Jan 1, 1998

By Elias Rigopoulos

In the present study the reductive behavior of dust from the rotary kilns (RK), in ferronickel production from nickeliferous Greek laterites, is investigated. The study concerns dust of various origins (washing towers, electrostatic filters, polycyclones) and pellets made from the dust. Reducibility was studied in the temperature range of 700 °C to 850 °C in a laboratory tube furnace. Experimental results showed that reduction degree increases with temperature up to about 800 °C. The rate of reduction is great during the first minutes, giving a reduction degree R% equal to about 25%, in only a few minutes. After this, the rate is decreasing until it diminishes to zero after about 10-20 minutes of reaction. Maximum reduction degree achieved is 26 to 28%. Rates and reduction degrees at various temperatures are higher for the dust samples than those of the respective pellet samples. Keywords: Ferronickel, metallurgy, laterites, pellets, reduction

Jan 1, 2004

By Qingchun Yu, Baoqiang Xu, Yongnian Dai, Bin Yang, Fulong Zhu

"In this paper, the mechanism of the carbothermic reduction-chlorination process to extract aluminum from alumina in vacuum was investigated. The carbon monoxide (CO) content of the gas, phases of the reduction slag, surface morphology of the reduction slag and the product aluminum were measured by means of gas chromatography (GC), XRD, and SEM. The experimental results indicated that the content of CO in the gas decreased, but Al4C3 increased with time at 1773K during the carbothermic reduction process of alumina. AlCl(g) and graphite (C) were produced by the reaction between Al4C3 and AlCh(g) at 1773K, and then aluminum beads generated after the decomposition of AlCl(g). It implied the mechanism of alumina carbothermic reduction-chlorination process in vacuum involves three steps as follows: the carbothermic reduction of A}z03 to produce Al4C3, the chlorination of Al4C3 by AlCh(g) to produce AlCl(g), and the decomposition of AlCl(g) to produce Al(l).IntroductionAluminum is the basic raw material for many industries [1], and it is used extensively because of various excellent properties such as light weight, good malleability, high strength, excellent thermal conduction, high corrosion resistance and so on [2]. Industrial production of aluminum currently includes refining alumina and electrolytic aluminum processes. However, its development has been effected by some factors such as high energy consumption and heavy environmental burdens [3]. In the past several decades, there had been numerous attempts to produce aluminum by new methods. Extracting aluminum from alumina or bauxite directly by carbothermic reduction-chlorination process had been studied [ 4-6]. Although the alumina carbothermic reduction process [7~9] had been studied, the mechanism of the carbothermic reduction-chlorination process had not been systematically elucidated.In order to investigate the mechanism of the carbothermic reduction-chlorination process in vacuum, GC, XRD and SEM techniques will be used to determine the CO content and to characterize the surface morphology and composition of the slags at various temperatures."

Jan 1, 2011

By Z. B. Moukhametshina

The process of various zirconium alloys iodination by the iodine vapor was investigated. The nature of impurities, conditions of iodination, iodine flow rate, and zirconium tetraiodide condensation rate effect on the metal impurities transfer process was analyzed, both qualitative and quantitative correlations were established. Impurities were classified according their transfer extent. Another classification of impurities transport dependence on iodination process temperature was also offered. Obtained results were compared with impurities transport data in the process of iodide refining available in literature. Some impurities transport mechanisins and iodide-refined metals improvement possibility by means of iodination conditions control were discussed.

Jan 1, 1997

By José R. de Tenorio

The aim of the present work was to investigate the reduction process of MnO~FeO-Si02 slags by carbon-saturated liquid iron. The effect of the initial Mn content in the bath was explored. The initial Mn content was in the range of 0 up to 40 wt. %. The MnO content in the slag was kept constant at 40 wt. %. Tests were performed in laboratory apparatus. Samples of slags and bath were taken. In the first 5 minutes, it was observed a very strong reduction of FeO. This first step promoted a MnO-Si02 enrichment of the slag and a formation of CO bubbles, which increases the slag level. The increase ofMn content decreases the MnO reduction rate.

Jan 1, 1996

By Kexin Jiao, Zhijia Zhang, Jianliang Zhang, Zhengjian Liu

Carburization behavior of molten iron in blast furnace is an essential part of BF long campaign technology. Maintaining carbon content stable is an important prerequisite to ensure the high production of the blast furnace. In this paper, the important aspects of the research progress which mainly including the study of iron carburization at the upper and the lower parts of the blast furnace was reviewed. Indirect carburizing is the main way at the top of the blast furnace. The content of carbon in metallic iron increases with the reducibility of iron ore improved. The thermodynamics and kinetics conditions are good for carburization reaction to take place at the bottom of the blast furnace. Carbon content of molten iron increased by coke carburizing. Meanwhile, the drawbacks of the existing literature on iron carburization behavior were analyzed and new research directions of iron carburization were proposed in the future.

Jan 1, 2015

By Andrew Case

The Port Nickel facility in Braithwaite, Louisiana, is known for pioneering hydrometallurgical processes for the 'separation and recovery of nickel, cobalt and copper. Ten years ago, in 1985, a new CRI-MET process for the recovery of molybdenum, vanadium, nickel, cobalt and alumina from spent catalysts was developed and implemented. Spent- catalysts from the petroleum industry consietute the majority of feed. These are not only a valuable-source of metals, but due to EPA regulations are frequently classified as hazardous under RCRA. Molybdenum and vanadium are selectively leached in an oxidative hydrothermal step. Alumina is then extracted in a caustic digestive leach. The unique technology produces four primary commercial products l molybdenum trioxide, vanadium oxide, aluminum trihydrate and nickel-cobalt concentrate. This paper discusses the process, modifications. during ten years of operation, and the relationship of these modifications to the future of the catalyst recycling business.

Jan 1, 1995

By N. M. S. Balbinot, A. L. Rodríguez, C. M. Mahlmann, R. de C. de S. Schneider

The use of sunflower oil co-products it was studied for production thermoplastic composites. Thermoplastic composites have been processed in polyethylene matrices of virgin linear low density polyethylene (LLDP) or recycled. Samples have been formulated with 10% mass fraction of sunflower bran, seed coat and mixture of bran and seed coat. The material characterization has been achieved by mechanical tensile test and Shore D hardness and by density physical testing. The results have demonstrated better properties to thermoplastic composites with sunflower seed coat.

Jan 1, 2008