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By Edgar Blanco

A thermodynamic and experimental investigation to develop a new process for converting molybdenite concentrate to molybdenum dioxide by a water-vapor oxidation process was carried out. In addition, the behavior of rhenium and selenium in molybdenum concentrate during the process was investigated. The kinetics of the reaction were determined by measuring the weight change of a sample with time in water vapor at temperatures between 700-1000°C. The results were analyzed by a Shrinking Unreacted Core model under chemical reaction control, which showed an activation energy value of 102 kJ/mol. To determine the behavior of rhenium and selenium, their concentrations in the molybdenum sulfide and the product molybdenum dioxide were measured by the use of ICP. While most rhenium remained with the molybdenum dioxide after the water vapor oxidation, almost all selenium volatilized. These results agree with thermodynamic analysis.

Jan 1, 2006

By Sylvain Gouttebroze, Mohammed M'Hamdi

In a previous work, a small scale Bridgman furnace has been used to study silicon bi-grain crystallization at different cooling rate. This work expands the analysis by studying the mechanical interaction between the crucible and ingot during the solidification and cooling. The thermal model is based on a 2D-axisymetric heat-transfer model. The flux histories are then transferred to the ingot-crucible 3D-model. Anisotropic Elastic and Crystal Plasticity model are used to model the silicon deformation. Four different assumptions are applied to model the mechanical contact crucible-ingot and three grain misorientations are considered. The results show the strong impact of the alumina crucible contraction on the stresses and deformations in the silicon ingot.

Jan 1, 2015

By Dan Wang, Qian Xu, Guangshi Li, Xionggang Lu, Xingli Zou, Zhongfu Zhou, Hongwei Cheng, Changyuan Lu

The preoxidation of the ore has a profound significance to the concentration, separation and purification of nickel and copper from the lean complex ore. In this paper, the natural Ni-Cu sulfide mineral samples under the elevated temperature condition in air were investigated, as well as under isothermal condition at 600 oC in air. The mineralogical characterization was studied using XRF, ICP and the Rietveld method. The oxidation behavior and the element migration of the Ni-Cu sulfide ore were studied by XRD, SEM-EDS and TG. The XRD Rietveld method was successfully developed in the phase identification and quantification of this complex ore powder sample. The oxidative intermediates (Cu/Ni-ferrite) were detected by XRD, and the process of the element migration was obviously revealed by the line scans using SEM-EDS. It is the preoxidation of this mineral that provides guidance for the extraction of valuable metals from low-grade Ni-Cu sulfide ores in the future.

Jan 1, 2015

By Huang Kai

Uniform needle-like and spherical nickel oxalate particles were prepared by the chelating precipitation process, which was based on the reaction of oxalate acid and the solution of ammonia nickel chloride. The molar ratio of ammonia to nickel ion in the mixed solution is essential to determine whether the spherical or needle-like particles are formed, which means actually the concentration of ammonia is the key to determine the growth mechanism. When oxalate acid is added in the form of solid, it may act as the nucleation interface for the eariy-precipitated substance and so induce the formation of spherical particles. The PVP agent can improve the dispersing degree of the needle-like particles and higher reacting temperature leads to larger particles. The composition of the needle-like particle consists of ammonium and nickel oxalate instead of the pure nickel oxalate.

Jan 1, 2003

By Ray D. Peterson, Annette Revet

The optimization of secondary aluminum furnaces is critical to the efficient operation of a recycling facility. Since all metal loss occurs in the drosses, physical and chemical analyses of these by-products are valuable diagnostic tools. Dross analyses can provide information concerning total furnace metal recovery efficiency as well as identifying areas for potential improvements. A complete dross analysis is a labor-intensive process that requires significant care both in sampling and performing the analytical techniques. Experiments can be done at a bench- or plant-scale depending on the facilities available. This paper outlines the benefits and information that can be generated through dross studies. Furthermore, several analytical methods are discussed as well as the special requirements needed to gain accurate results. Experimental data from industrial studies is provided to demonstrate the use of dross evaluations for ~ace optimization.

Jan 1, 2000

By Kai Tang, Casper van der Eijk

Natural gas has been used as reductant in the production of iron for several decades. Recently, the use of natural gas as reductant for other metals has been drawing attention because of the low price of natural gas, as well as the reduction of CO2 emissions compared to the use of coke and coal. In this work, the reduction of a mixture of Ti- and Ni-oxides by natural gas has been studied. Within the Ni-Ti system, the intermetallic compound Ni3Ti is thermodynamically the most stable one. Therefore, powders of Ni-oxide and Ti-oxides were mixed in an atomic ratio of three to one and subsequently pelletized. Reduction was performed in a TGA furnace at constant temperature with varying reducing gas atmospheres. In a natural gas containing atmosphere, the Ni-oxide was easily reduced to metallic nickel while the Ti was reduced to Ti-oxycarbides or Ti-oxynitride when nitrogen was present. Depending on the process parameters, several percent of Ti was dissolved in the nickel-based solid phase.

Jan 1, 2014

By Yuzhe Zhang, Xiaodi Huang, Xinli Wang, Bowen Li, Matthew Andriese, Jiann-Yang Hwang, Zhiwei Peng

The recycling of waste tires has been a big environmental problem. About 280 million waste tires are produced annually in the United States and more than 2 billion tires are stockpiled, which cause fire hazards and health issues. Tire rubbers are insoluble elastic high polymer materials. They are not biodegradable and may take hundreds of years to decompose in the natural environment. Microwave irradiation can be a thermal processing method for the decomposition of tire rubbers. In this study, the microwave absorption properties of waste tire at various temperatures are characterized to determine the conditions favorable for the microwave heating of waste tires.

Jan 1, 2015

By S. Subhawong

Following the startup of the zinc plant in Clarksville, Tennessee, in 1978, the original effluent treatment plant did not perform as designed. The sludge, produced in a conventional lime neutralization treatment, settled poorly and began to fill the permitted lined impoundment within two years, well short of the original design capacity. Another sludge pond had to be constructed. This led to a new process modification of the original design. Although the design is still based on the conventional lime precipitation of heavy metals, the current effluent treatment plant has evolved into a hydrometallurgical circuit, capable of producing good quality water without generating sludge. Undesirable elements are bled from the zinc circuit and are rejected through the effluent treatment operations. Wallboard grade gypsum is produced, instead of sludge, and all the gypsum is sold to cement and wallboard plants. This operation also recovers and returns more than 1,500 tonnes of zinc annually to the 105,000 tonne/y zinc plant.

Jan 1, 2000

By Yiming Rong, Gang Wang

"Water quenching is one of common heat treatment processes but with complex physical phenomenon, in which vaporizing, bubbling and convection are involved. The general simulation of liquid quenching processes is conducted by using temperature dependent value of heat transfer coefficient (HTC) obtained from experimental measurement under a strong assumption. A preliminary multiphase flow model developed by using Ansys-CFX for water quenching has been presented in this paper, which shows a distributed HTC with a time dependent feature. The conjugate heat transfer is used to describe thermal conduction in the simplified workpiece, and generation, growth and flow of bubbles are modeled by using Eulerian-Eulerian method for the gas-liquid multiphase flow. The simulation result shows the intense variation of heat exchange through the interface between workpiece and liquid, and the unsteady distribution around the solid surface.IntroductionQuenching is a rapid cooling process which makes the desired solid phase transformations happen for the certain material properties. For aluminum alloy, rapid quenching will prevent all phase transformation and generate a supersaturated single phase."

Jan 1, 2012

By J. C. DeSantis

Thin, highly reflective rhodium films with metal compositions greater than 98% (elemental -weight percentage) have been deposited by chemical vapor deposition using Rh(allyl)3 (ally1 = q3-C3H5) in the presence of a hydrogen plasma. Uniform, crystalline films that adhere well to several types of substrates result from depositions at temperatures as low as 150°C. Depositions using H2 (no plasma), or an argon plasma yields material that is amorphous, contains a significant amount (>14%) of residual carbon, and has a dramatically slower growth rate. The composition of these materials does not vary significantly from that of the materials obtained from the in vacuo thermal deposition with Rh(allyl)3.

Jan 1, 1992

By W. Dutton, D. Simms

"The clearing of tuyeres on copper and nickel converters or similar metallurgical, vessels has, for many years, been done using mainly a manually- operated ""puncher"". One such device is the ""Gaspe Puncher"" developed in 1962 at Noranda's Gaspe Smelter. In an attempt to remove the operator from the cab of the Puncher, and to relieve him of a tedious, uncomfortable job, Noranda's Horne Division, in cooperation with Heath & Sherwood (1964) Limited and the Noranda Research Centre, undertook to automate the Gaspe Puncher used on the Noranda Continuous Smelting Process Reactor.The automated puncher is controlled by a Texas Instruments Model 530C Programmable Controller (PLC). Position measurement and control is done using non-contact position measuring equipment from the Tele-Controls Division of Geodimeter Inc. The entire automation system was installed on an existing Gaspe Puncher with minimum disruption to the operation of the smelting process. The operator's panel allows the user to ""block out"" any individual tuyere, and to select any of a variety of operating modes.The development of the automated puncher is described, and the results of several months operation are given.IntroductionThe tuyeres of copper and nickel converters and similar metallurgical vessels become blocked with solidified material formed by the cooling action of the blowing air. This restricts the converting operation. Clearing these blocked tuyeres has for many years been done mainly using a manually-operated ""puncher"" which uses a hydraulic or pneumatically-operated piston to drive a steel bar into the tuyere. The Gaspe Puncher, developed at Noranda's Gaspe Smelter in 1962 is one such device. It is currently being built and sold by Heath & Sherwood (1964) Limited, under license to Noranda. There are over 200 units in operation world-wide.In an attempt to remove the Puncher operator from the cab of the Puncher, and to relieve him of a tedious, uncomfortable job, and to increase productivity, Noranda's Horne Division, in cooperation with Heath & Sherwood (1964) Limited and the Noranda Research Centre, undertook to automate the Gaspe Puncher used on the Noranda Continuous Smelting Process Reactor. This paper describes the development of the automated Gaspe Puncher, its installation at the Horne Smelter, and the results of its operation after several months."

Jan 1, 1989

By Denise C. R. Espinosa

The amount of secondary batteries are increasing about 15% by year. Among these batteries, it can be highlighted the NiCd ones, due to their high consumption. In Brazil, the consumption of NiCd batteries grown quickly in the last 5 years, due to the dissemination of cellular telephones and other electronic devices. The first step of a process to recycle spent NiCd batteries is the pretreatment through unit operations of mining treatment. The aim of this work is to define a physical pretreatment to conditioning the waste to a pyrornetallurgical recycling process of spent NiCd batteries used in cellular telephones. Batteries were disassembled by hand to release the different components. The studied batteries are basically composed (by weight) of: 78% nucleus, 18% plastic case and 2% circuits. The grinding of the batteries was performed by knife mill and also by hammer mill. After grinding the material was screened and submitted to a magnetic separator.

Jan 1, 2001

By André L. de Vegt

Soil and groundwater beneath a zinc production plant in The Netherlands are contaminated with metals and sulfate. To avoid contamination of nearby drinking water aquifers, a hydro-geological containment system and a biological treatment plant for the extracted ground water have been installed. Currently about 5000 m3/day of groundwater is extracted from a combination of 12 shallow and deep wells. Heavy metals and sulfate have to be removed from the extracted water before it can be discharged into a river. Several water treatment methods have been studied and pilot tested at the site. The preferred and selected process is based on the activity of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) and combines sulfate removal and heavy metal removal in one single installation. Anaerobic bacteria reduce sulfate to sulfide resulting in the precipitation of metal sulfides. Excess sulfide Is biologically converted to elemental sulfur. A full scale biological treatment system was started up in May 1992. Design, start-up, commissioning and operational experiences are reported in this paper. Concentrations of metals and sulfate in the SRB water treatment plant effluent are well within the limits set by the Dutch Authorities for discharge to surface water.

Jan 1, 1995

By Jitka Jandová

In this study, hydrometallurgical processing of waste ZnO flue dust arising during zinc removal from galvanized low-alloy steel sheets was investigated on a laboratory-scale to obtain electrolytic zinc. The flue dust was separated from flue gases, generated during heating waste galvanized steel sheets in an electric furnace under air atmosphere at temperatures of about 1000oC. The dust, comprising tetragonal ZnO and insignificant amounts of SiO2, was contaminated by Fe, Mn, Pb, Al, Mg, Pb, Cu and Ca. The dust was leached in 0.5 and 1.0M H2SO4 and/or in 20 and 30% NaOH at different temperatures and different liquid-to-solid ratios to determine the optimum conditions leading to the highest possible selectivity of leaching and efficiency of Zn extraction in minimum time. The subsequent electrowinning process was performed with refined zinc sulphate leach liquors and/or with untreated zinc caustic solutions. Zinc sulphate leach liquors were purified using a combination of a hydrolytic pH-controlled precipitation, cementation and carbon refining. Effects of operational variables on Zn electrowinning have been studied for both sulphate and caustic electrolytes. The conventional plate-plate electrowinning cell has been explored in this study. Comparison of results obtained for both zinc electrowinning from acid sulphate and alkaline solutions is presented contribution.

Jan 1, 2003

By J. P. Ibáñez

The uptake of copper from extremely dilute aqueous solutions by alginate in the form of protonated dry alginate beads was investigated. Barium was used to cross link the alginate forming the beads. The effect of various experimental parameters such as pH and metal ions concentration on the uptake of copper were studied. The uptake was strongly dependent on the Cu-bearing solution pH up to a value of 4.5. A removal of 100% o was achieved when the initial concentration of copper was as low as 8.0 mg/L. The maximum uptake, i, e., the loading capacity, was found to be 167 mg of copper per g of beads. The mechanism governing the removal of copper was found to be ion exchange between protons of the alginate beads and cupric ions of the solution. For this ion exchange process a molar ratio, d[H+]/d[Cu2+], of 2.0 was determined. EPMA-EDX analysis of the Cu-loaded beads showed a uniform distribution of the ions throughout the structure of the alginate, regardless the solution pH. This may suggest that this sorbent material is a porous ion exchanger having high permeability and capacity. The uptake of copper and of the heavy metals cadmium and zinc by this sorbent is compared.

Jan 1, 1999

By Mao Chen, Baojun Zhao, Zhixiang Cui

Bottom blown oxygen copper smelting process, operated at high grade matte (up to 75 wt% Cu) with relatively low (2-3 wt%) Cu in slag, has been commercialized for more than five years at Dongying Fangyuan Nonferrous Metals CO., Ltd. Quenched slag and matte samples have been collected at different operating conditions while the slag temperature was measured by thermocouple. The samples were analysed by X-ray Fluorescence and Electron Probe X-ray Microanalysis. FactSage computational software was used to explain the observations of the industrial samples. The analyses show that the copper loss was closely related to the operation parameters. The Fe/SiO2 in slag and temperature determine the solid proportion, which significantly affects the physical entrained and also chemically dissolved copper in the slag. The present study will be useful in understanding the slag chemistry of bottom blown copper smelting furnace and in optimization of the operating conditions to lower Cu loss in the slag.

Jan 1, 2015

By J. Ipinza

The slime formation with several metallic impurities from acidic electrolytes of copper has been studied. On fresh Pb-Ca-Sn anode surface firstly the formation of PbSO4 takes place, then, it is transformed in the conducting PbO2, which covers the anode surface. It has been experimentally established the formation of a manganese dioxide double layer at the anode; this double layer was always composed of a thick external layer of non-adhering and easily removable scales, and of a thin internal layer, which adheres relatively well to the surface of the electrode. It was found that manganese dioxides present in the slime were of different nature: a non-adhering layer produced by electrolysis (-MnO2) on the PbO2 surface and a pure chemical precipitation in the solution (-MnO2). When iron is present in the electrolyte on this last layer of manganese, lead sulfate was found. In the case of arsenic and antimony in the electrolyte the slime generated was found to be lead sulfate and amorphous compounds of those ions. The lower slime generation in Chilean EW plants could be due to the lower contents of iron and manganese in the electrolytes. It was found that this slime formation rate not only is due to the electrolyte composition but also to the poor control of operational parameters at EW plants.

Jan 1, 2003

By W. Kasprzak

Press-fit systems are widely used to seal oil lines in the automotive engine components. In the case studied a ball plug made from the 7075 A1 alloy was inserted into a 319 Al alloy cast component. The oil lines were subjected to the required component service pressure. This paper addresses the analysis of the ball plug/casting hole press-fit performance. The tools used to investigate the plug system included: the SEMIEDS technique for the assessment of the plug and the casting hole wall surface integrity; image analysis methods for the characterization of the ball plug/casting hole interface; matrix microhardness measurements of the plug and casting components; laboratory ball plug insertion, speed and force correlation; as well as the ball shearing mechanism analysis. Laboratory tests indicated that optimization of the aluminum matrix hardness in the 319 A1 alloy cast components resulted in considerable improvement of the press-fit system sealing properties.

Jan 1, 2002

By Dean G. Heitt

"The Rain and SMZ mines from 1987 to 1994 produced a total of22.0 t of gold from a pre-mine reserve of 14.24 Mt of ore grading 2.13 g/t Au.Gold at Rain is hosted within the basal portion of the Mississippian Webb Formation. ·Mineralization is closely tied to the Rain Fault which is interpreted to be the main feeder for the deposit. Multiple collapse and hydrothermal breccia events provided permeability for the mineralizing fluids in the otherwise unreactive siltstones. Major alteration events include: decalcification and dolomitization of the Devils Gate Limestone; and silicification, baritization, argillization and oxidation of the Webb Fm. Six ore types based on XRD and visual rock chip Jogging have been identified: siliceous ore containing >40% quartz and <30% barite; siliceous-baritic ore containing mostly silica but >30% barite; baritic ore containing >40% barite; argillaceous ore containing >40% total clays (including alunite); calcareous ore containing mostly calcite and dolomite; and carbonaceous ore which has significant pyrite and organic carbon. Metallurgical testing of the oxide leach grade ores found that recoveries, on -1.3 cm crushed material, were greater than 70%. Results also found that Rain ore has strong grind dependency due to silica encapsulation.The Rain leach pad was commissioned in 1988, and to date 9.3·Mt at an average grade of0.65 g/t Au have been placed. Life to date recovery, through December 1995, is approximately 51 %, for a total of3.87 t of gold produced. Two major factors have contributed to the low leach recoveries at Rain when compared with the metallurgical testing: 1) More argillaceous ore than expected was placed on the pad especially late in the mine life and 2) approximately 50% of the tons placed were run-of-mine with no agglomeration."

Jan 1, 1997

By Daoxin Wu, Zhong Cao, Yan Shi, Yu Ding, Huanli Yang, Zhongliang Xiao

"2-substituted benzimidazole-zinc and 2-substituted benzimidazole-copper complexes were main components of organic solderability preservative (OSP) in PCB producing process and affect the thermal stability of OSP film. So these four complexes were prepared by 2-substitutedbenzimidazole reacting with zinc ion and copper ion, the complexes crystals were determined by IR, its thermal stabilities were studied by TG method. The results indicated that the thermal stability of 2-substituted benzimidazole-zinc is higher than the 2-substituted benzimidazole copper,and the thermal decomposition mechanism was presentedIntroductionImidazole compounds which is an important heterocyclic compound shows the important value and outstanding prospects[I-3l in field of biological engineering, medicine, and high-performance composites. It's said that imidazole compounds is an excellent new metal surface treatment[4] agent, because it has good reaction activity with metals and can form a chemical layer on the metal surface. The complexes of imidazole were main components of organic solderability preservative (OSP) in PCB producing process and affect the thermal stability of OSP film. The mechanism of imodazole combined with metal and film deposited has been reported, but the opinions about thermal stability of film have bifurcation, let alone the thermal decomposition mechanism of film at high temperature. The complexes were prepared by combining of 2- substituted-benzimidazole with zinc and copper iron, which were studied by IR and TG method, in order to get thermal stability of different complexes."

Jan 1, 2011