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By T. P. R. de Jong

Dual energy X-ray transmission imaging is extensively applied for safety luggage inspection. Its advantages are its rapid scanning rate (25 to 100 cm/sec) at approximately I mm resolution and simultaneous thickness independent metal identification. This is especially advantageous for secondary scrap metal inspection and automatic sorting. Other applications include metal product inspection, bale control, and waste processing. Recent progress in development of an automatic on-line sorter for bulk solids is presented and discussed. Besides various non-metal applications (solid fuels, wastes etc.) it appeared particularly effective in light metal sorting. As inspection tool better control of difficult to monitor solid bulk streams, batteries, bales and other related metals becomes possible.

Jan 1, 2003

By I. H. Bonekamp

Norddeutsche Affinerie has operated an Outokurnpu type flash smelter for more than 25 years. In recent years, the concentrate smelting capacity was increased to 750,000 tpy, double of the initial design capacity. Maintaining this high performance level requires very good metallurgical process control. It is not enough to base this control on thermodynamics and kinetics since the furnace is highly dynamic. Understanding these dynamics and being able to quantify them can have significant financial benefits. A mass and energy balance model was developed and is discussed based on measured data. At this time the model is based on the major elements copper, iron, sulfur and silica. With it is possible to quantify the differences of the various material streams such as matte, slag, flue dust, matte carry-over to settling furnace, etc. Comparing the reconciled energy balance model with the fundamental thermodynamic model makes it possible to quantify the dynamics. These dynamics are related to input parameters using methods such as statistics and neural nets. In the future this database will be used to improve the understanding of the dynamic process as well as the dynamic process control.

Jan 1, 1999

By Naiyang Ma

"High oil concentration is one of the major barriers for recycling of mill scale of steel hot rolling mills. It is of vital importance to find cost-effective technologies of reducing oil concentration in mill scale in order to recycle the mill scale without causing detrimental effects on production and environment. This paper discusses in-process separation of mill scale from oil at steel hot rolling mills. Formation of mill scale and status of oily wastewater at hot rolling mills are reviewed in the first place. A mathematical model is then formulated to relate oil concentration in mill scale to physical properties of mill scale, chemical and physical properties of wastewater and interacting parameters between mill scale particles and wastewater. From this model, three approaches of in-process separation of mill scale from oil are derived: (1) avoiding contacts between mill scale particles and oily wastewater, and (2) maintaining low oil concentration in wastewater, and (3) collecting mill scale in upper streams of wastewater flows. In-process separation of mill scale from oil might have advantages of lower capital cost, lower operating cost and less additional environmental concerns, compared to other strategies of separating mill scale from oil.IntroductionHot rolling is an inevitable step in producing finished steel products. Figure 1 schematically shows a steel hot rolling process. Semi-finished steel products, slabs here, are reheated first, and then the reheated slabs are discharged from the furnaces and transported on hot rolling trains to descaling units for removing scale with pressurized water. After being descaled, the slabs are rolled by roughing mills. After treated with cropping and the second descaling, the slabs are finally rolled into finished products, coils here, by finishing mills."

Jan 1, 2012

By J. M. Tourre

Recently, interest in rare earth based oxide powders for electronic applications has risen dramatically. Considerable research has been devoted to the chemical synthesis of these compounds to improve the control of physical and chemical characteristics of the powder. In most cases, a high degree of homogeneity, purity and reproducibility is necessary in order to obtain good application properties. The synthesis parameters can control particle size, surface area, and morphology as well as the degree of homogeneity and application properties. Rhone-Poulenc, a world leader in the production of separated Rare Earth chemicals has developed a flexible process to produce a wide variety of compounds. The different processes for the synthesis of YBa 2Cu 3 O 7 will be discussed and compared to the RP process in term of product quality, cost and flexibility.

Jan 1, 1992

By R. S. Celmer

The distributions of cobalt, molybdenum, copper, and selenium between nickel matte and silica-saturated iron silicate slag have been determined in the region of the metallic saturation boundary, at 1523 K. Results are given as a function of the composition of the coexisting Fe-Ni alloy and the activity of iron in the system. Under strongly reducing conditions, these minor elements display a marked preferential accumulation in the sulphide phase. It is shown that the dissolution of cobalt and molybdenum in slag follows an oxidative mechanism, and distribution equilibria are correlated with the oxygen potential. From these data, the thermodynamic properties of cobalt in nickel matte are computed. Further, comparisons of minor element partitions are made between the nickel and copper matte smelting cases under metal saturation conditions.

Jan 1, 1988

By I. D. Reznik

Regularities of cobalt and nickel distribution between slag and matte, slag and metallic alloy on the base of concepts on exchange reaction equilibrium are considered. It is shown that the distribution of cobalt and nickel in industrial processes approaches to equilibrium one. Oxysulphiae influence on the bahaviour of cobalt, nickel and sulphur is shown. The recommendations on conduction of the processes of smelting, converting and slag cleaning based on the analysis of the methods or" non : ferrous metal separation from iron are given.

Jan 1, 1993

By C. J. Parradies

During injection into a die, semi-solid metal alloys exhibit a shear-rate, history-dependent flow response. Simulating the injection of a thixotropic material requires that empirically determined boundary conditions and viscosity are specified as a function of both temperature and shear rate history. Experiments were performed using an industrial die casting machine that was instrumented with sensors to measure the pressure and temperature during the injection of a semi-solid aluminum alloy through a tube. This benchmark experiment was used to develop a simulation of the die casting process that could then be applied to more complex die geometries. The results of the experiments were analyzed using the exact, steady state solution for a power law fluid and simulations accounting for slipping at the boundary between the semi-solid metal and the die. Results indicated that the no-slip condition cannot be used to simulate the velocity boundary condition, because the measured pressure is much lower than that predicted by the models. An estimated apparent slip coefficient was introduced to account for the reduced pressure. During some of the experiments, a sudden drop in the measured pressured, prior to decreasing the ram velocity, coincided with observations of segregation in the form of concentric rings visible on the polished surface of cross-sections cut from material remaining in the tube.

Jan 1, 1997

By G. Haesebroek

In L969 Metallurgie Hoboken-Overpelt started an industrial plant for the separation of iron and zinc from a concentrated CoCL2 solution. Iron and zinc are extracted in column contactors by a solvent containing 12 vol % of tertiary amines in xylene. The extracted metals are stripped from the pregnant organic phase by precipitation with a NaOH solution at pH LL. In this paper an overview is given of the industrial process. In order to overcome some drawbacks of this process (low flash point of the diluent, reagent consumption, batchwise stripping) an alternative solvent extraction process has been examined. In this alternative process, iron and zinc are extracted with an or¬ganic phase containing 50 vol % of TBP in Escaid 110. The pregnant solvent is stripped with water in conventional mixer settlers. Despite the ability of this process to overcome most of the inconveniences due to the use of tertiary amines, it suffers from the poor stability of TBP in concentrated chloride solutions, resulting in unavoidable and inacceptable precipitation phenomena in the stripping section.

Jan 1, 1988

By Tong Zhilin

The reasons why the pits were formed on the cathode in the process of Ni electrowinning and the methods how to prevent these pits from forming are described. Some examples are presented. It has 'been proven that P507 and P204 present in the electrolyte can effectively prevent pits from forming on the cathode.

Jan 1, 1993

By Stavros A. Argyropoulos, Michael Trovant, Norman J. Goudie

"Two studies were carried out to estimate the thermal resistance of various interfaces using experimental and computational techniques. Three types of interfaces were examined. The first study investigated metal-mold interfaces, and the second study focused on metal-metal and metal-oxide interfaces.For the metal-mold interface, the air gap size was measured and subsequently correlated with the interface thermal resistance. The procedural details are outlined for the development of a correlation which predicts thermal resistance as a function of air gap size.Investigation of the metal-metal and metal-oxide interfaces employed data from a series of experiments as input into a model, which solved the inverse heat conduction problem in terms of a resistance estimate. These experiments, involved dipping a cold cylindrical metal into a liquid metal or liquid oxide, respectively. Under these conditions, a shell freezes around the cylindrical addition and a thermal resistance develops during the time period which shell exists . The Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) at the addition shell interface differs significantly among the various types of metals and oxides used. In the case of an oxide shell, the (HTC) is about an order of magnitude lower than the (HTC) of the metal shell.INTRODUCTIONIn many metals processing operations there is a need to estimate the thermal resistance at metal-metal, metal-oxide, metal-mold interfaces. This need was further intensified with the recent proliferation of mathematical models, which predict various transport phenomena events. There are many factors which can influence the magnitude of the interfacial thermal resistance. Some of the factors, among others, are as follows: contact temperature, metal thermal conductivity, apparent contact pressure, surface roughness, interstitial gas conductivity, and interstitial gas pressure.In this paper, two studies are reported on the estimation of thermal resistance. The first involves, the development of heat transfer coefficient-air gap relationships at the metal-mold interfaces. The second includes, estimations of thermal resistance at the addition-shell interface. The former case is encountered in the metals solidification and the latter during the melting and/or dissolution of additions to liquid metals or slags."

Jan 1, 1999

By Dave Tahija

"Many investigations are being performed with the goal of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and permanently storing it in geologically stable settings. At the same time, carbon dioxide in the form of dissolved carbonate is steadily accumulating in the world's oceans. Both carbon dioxide sequestration and oceanic accumulation are constrained by the aqueous thermodynamics of the carbonate system. These constraints are illustrated using the STABCAL computer model to generate potential-pH and aqueous distribution diagrams of seawater in contact with various pressures of carbon dioxide gas. STABCAL diagrams and titration simulations are also used to model some potentially useful cation-carbonate sequestrationsystems.IntroductionAtmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have risen dramatically in the past couple of centuries and are rising still, primarily as a result of human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have been implicated as a main cause of global warming but have other effects as well.Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide result in increased concentrations of dissolved carbonate complexes in water, including the oceans. These dissolved carbonates interact with other dissolved substances, altering overall seawater chemistry, most noticeably causing lowered pH levels.Some of these chemical changes are observed directly, for instance the general drop in oceanic pH, [1], while others can be inferred and predicted using thermodynamic modeling. The chemistry of dissolved carbonate in seawater is not especially intricate, as such chemical systems go, but neither is it simple enough to be worked out on the back of an envelope. Interactions between the several simple carbonate species and all the major dissolved cations in seawater should be considered, as well as the effects of competing anions, especially chloride and sulphate, since they are much more abundant than carbonate in seawater."

Jan 1, 2011

By John A. Clark, Danylo Oryshchyn, Casey Carney, Stephen Gerdemann, Cathy Summers, Thomas Ochs

"Limited analysis of combustion gas streams where carbon capture is not of interest is done mainly to ascertain operation parameters. Stringent regulations on acid gases and particulates promote careful flue gas analysis. Unregulated components are typically not analyzed. Typically not more than four points (two in the boiler, and one each in the flue and the stack) are sampled. A successful oxy-fuel process with carbon capture and compression is anticipated to require as many as 12 sample points with analysis for water, nitrogen, oxygen, argon, NOx, SOx, and carbon monoxide. Carbon dioxide captured for beverages produces a high value product and the cost associated with analysis is warranted. However, carbon capture for disposal must keep all costs to a minimum. This paper will compare alternative approaches for cost-effective sampling and analysis of the carbon dioxide product streams from oxy-fuel combustion, through all stages of production through compression and pipeline/vessel delivery.IntroductionAnalysis of gases in an oxy-combustion process with carbon capture is essential to the operations of the oxy-fired boiler and the subsequent collection, compression, and purification of carbon dioxide. The process is charged with pure oxygen and not-so-pure carbon in the form of coal at the front end, generating a product of mainly carbon dioxide with traces of argon, nitrogen, sulfur compounds, nitrogen compounds, oxygen, hydrogen, and mercury. It is possible that hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide may also be present in trace amounts [1]. The trace components primarily come from impurities contained in coal such as water, sulfur, nitrogen, and volatile organic compounds. Coal also contains a good deal of mineral matter that is transformed into ash during combustion, becoming particulates that can complicate the analysis regimes utilizing standard analytical equipment."

Jan 1, 2010

By Florian Kongoli

Slags and fluxes are important interchangeable dimensions of pyrometallurgical processes. They can increase the efficiency of the smelting, converting and refining processes and improve the quality of the final products. A good slag should have appropriate physicochemical properties such as low liquidus temperature, optimal viscosity, maximum ability to attract undesirable elements, minimum potential of attracting valuable elements, etc .. A good flux, on the other hand, when properly used, can considerably improve the physicochemical properties of the slag since by modifYing its chemical composition it could decrease the liquidus temperature, improve viscosity etc.. Consequently, the choice of a good slag and the corresponding fluxing strategies has become indispensable in most of industrial processes. However, the properties of multi component slags as well as the effect of several fluxes are known only empirically and confusion exists in the literature and in the industrial practice. In today's reality of frequent changes in the composition of raw materials and that of the fluxes themselves, in the existing or new developing technologies, the quantification of the thermophysicochemical properties of multicomponent slags and the effect of fluxes becomes indispensable. This paper reviews some of the work carried out by the author's group during the last ten years on the quantification of the thermophysicochemical properties of multicomponent slags and on the effect of fluxes in several smelting and converting processes in close relation to their individual characteristics. Several examples have been given in order to demonstrate the fact that when taken outside the context some fluxes can become in fact anti-fluxes.

Jan 1, 2003

By Suzzann Nordwick

The metallurgical treatment of mercury-containing materials for precious or base metals recovery imposes many processing and environmental challenges. Mercury is usually present as elemental or cinnabar. Historically, mercury has been removed from mined ores pyrometallurgically by roasting, but hydrometallurgical methods have also been employed. For example, alkaline sodium sulfide solution acts as an universal solvent for most mercury compounds. While, most other metals are highly insoluble in this solution. This allows for a high degree of selective separation of mercury from other metals with the exception of tin, antimony and arsenic. Mercury leached with a solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide or sulfur can be re-covered by cementation or stabilized through sulfide precipitation. Hydrometallurgical technology for the pretreatment of mercury removal from gold, silver, and base metal ores using alkaline sulfide leaching will be discussed with a focus on alkaline sulfide leaching of mercury sulfide-containing materials.

Jan 1, 2003

By Shadia J. Ikhmayies

"Nanocrystalline fluorine doped tin oxide (Sn02:F) thin films were produced by the spray pyrolysis technique (SP) on glass substrates at a substrate temperature T, = 450 ° C. The hydrated stannous chloride (SnClz.2H20) was used as a precursor and ammonium fluoride (NH4F) and hydrofluoric acid (HF) were used as the doping compounds. A comparison between the compositional, morphological and optical properties of the films obtained by using the two doping compounds was performed by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations, energy dispersive spectroscopy by X-rays (EDAX) and transmittance measurements. It is found that the films prepared by using HF have larger grain size, and higher fluorine content than the films prepared by using ~- In addition these films have higher transmittance and higher direct optical bandgap energy. These results are interesting for the use of Sn02:F as a forecontact in CdS/CdTe solar cells.IntroductionTin dioxide is an n-type, wide bandgap semiconductor (about 3.5 eV) and in the form of thin films, it is a transparent conducting material, characterized by high optical transmission (80- 90%) [l]. Sn02:F is the most widely used transparent-conducting oxide material. The transparent-conducting thin films of this oxide are used as electrodes in a variety of optoelectronic devices, as heat mirror coatings in 'smart windows' for buildings, in automobile and airplane windshields, in incandescent light bulbs, in flat-plate and concentrating solar collectors. Tin oxide and zinc oxide, in thin film configuration are technologically important materials because of their applications in photovoltaic cells [2].Among various dopants for Sn02, fluorine is often preferred, because fluorine doping results in films with high transparency and good conductivity [3]. By exploring the literatures, it was found that different sources of fluorine were used to produce Sn02:F thin fihns, among which are ammonium fluoride (NH4F) and hydrofluoric acid (HF) are the most used. Some researchers used~ [2, 4-7] and others used HF [3, 6-8] for doping Sn02 films. Gordillo et al.[7] used both of NH4F and HF and showed that the resistivity of thin films obtained by using HF was lower than that of similar films obtained by using NH4F by a factor of 2.2. They also found that the films obtained by using HF have more random orientations."

Jan 1, 2013

By D. G. Mason

During the design of copper refinery tankhouses, there is a need to develop mass balance calculations for many process components, so that optimum physical plant configuration is achieved. Each mass balance is complex, possibly with over 120 interactive variables as basic input data. Recent developments in tankhouse design (e.g. permanent cathodes) have greatly increased the design options available for any project, multiplying even further the requirement for calculations. In the past these calculations were tedious and susceptible to human error. A comprehensive computer program can now simplify the task of the process metallurgist, enabling more sophisticated and sensitive plant designs to be produced. The paper describes the successful development of a flexible mass balance program that originallly was used in a feasibility study which had to be completed within a short time schedule. The program has been further developed and used for design and energy calculations; it can be usefully applied to existing plants to assess the impact of variations in operating parameters. The software takes account of staged liberation, electrolyte purification bleed and generates a reliable process inventory listing: it can also cope with stripper starting sheet options and disparate commercial circuits.

Jan 1, 1987

By C. Beckennann, C. Y. Wang

"Computer simulations of structural and compositional development in equiaxed dendritic alloy solidification are performed using a recently developed multi phase model. The model not only accounts for the transport phenomena occurring on the macroscopic (system) scale, but includes also the grain nucleation and growth mechanisms taking place at various microscopic length scales. In this paper, a numerical technique consisting of a fully implicit control-volume based finite difference method and a multiple time step scheme is developed for accurate and efficient simulations of both micro- and macro-phenomena. Sample numerical results are presented to reveal the effects of liquid now and crystal sedimentation on segregation and the final grain size distribution. In particular, the importance of the interplay between the dendrite microstructure and multiphase now patterns is shown.IntroductionIn recent years, modeling of equiaxed dendritic solidification without convection has experienced considerable progress (1,2]. Nucleation and growth kinetic laws have been coupled with transient heat conduction calculations to determine the solidification microstructure. However, modeling of equiaxed dendritic solidification with melt convection and solid movement has not been attempted so far, largely because of the complications associated with the transport of free equiaxed crystals in the melt. The gravity-induced transport of free crystals is fundamental to the development and extent of the equiaxed zone and also greatly affects the columnar to equiaxed transition. Another possible effect of crystal sedimentation or floatation is to cause severe macrosegregation as well as structural inhomogeneities. The only study available in the literature that accounts for both liquid convection and solid transport is by Ni and Beckermann (3], but deals with globulitic structures (as opposed to dendritic)"

Jan 1, 1994

By Marc Verhaege

The effluent under investigation results from a catalic oxidation unit in which paraxylene is oxydised to terephtalic acid. The solution contains cobalt and manganese as their acetates in a concentration range of 0,4 - 1,2 g/I of cobalt and 0,8 - 2,4 g/l of manganese. Before being fed into the main waste stream treatment unit of the plant it is advisable to apply a petreatment step in which both metals are eliminated to a great extent from this effluent. Conventional treatment is done by precipitation of both metals either through pH increment with a base or by adding a suitable reagent producing insoluble species. The aim of this study was to look for a treatment (elimination of both metal species) in which no sludge or precipitate is formed.

Jan 1, 1995

By Florian Kongoli

"Lime ferrite" slag with limited silica content has proven to be a valuable choice in the modem processes of copper smelting and converting due to several advantages that this slag offers compared to classical silicate slags. Nevertheless the liquidus surface of this slag has been experimentally measured only at low oxygen potentials such as in equilibrium with iron or near it and in air. Although most of the smelting and converting processes that use this slag occur at intermediate oxygen potentials, the liquidus surface of this slag is not known at these conditions and the effect of oxygen potential and silica has not been correctly understood. This has brought some confusion in literature as well as in the industrial practice. In this work the liquidus surface of the calcium ferrite slags has been quantified by the means of a new thermophysicochemical model and a new type of liquidus surface diagrams which are very convenient for any industrial process that uses calcium ferrite slags. These diagrams can be easily used to select the lowest liquidus temperature of calcium ferrite slags at a minimum cost and can help design several fluxing strategies in copper smelting and converting processes. The effect of the oxygen potential and silica is also quantified and important industrially related conclusions are drawn.

Jan 1, 2003

By Riyad N. Ahmad-Bitar, Shadia J. Lkhmayies

"CdSi-xTex thin films were prepared by first producing CdS:In thin films by the spray pyrolysis (SP) technique and then annealing the films in the presence of Te vapor in nitrogen atmosphere. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) measurements showed that the films are polycrystalline with the wurtzite structure. Transmittance measurements were recorded at room temperature in the wavelength range 400-900 nm and used to deduce the absorbance. The first derivative of the absorbance was calculated and used to find the values of the bandgap energy, where more than one bandgap was obtained for each film. These results show that the films are inhomogeneous or the composition differs with location. The photoluminescence (PL) was recorded at T = 60 K and a deconvolution peak fit was performed for each spectrum. The results of the PL spectra are consistent with those obtained from the first derivative and confirm the inhomogeneity of the films.IntroductionPolycrystalline thin film CdS/CdTe solar cells are promising candidates for low cost and high efficiency photovoltaic applications. The CdS/CdTe interface plays an active role and a detailed knowledge of its properties is crucial for thorough understanding of the device. High efficiency devices have been obtained in spite of the large lattice mismatch (9. 7%) between hexagonal CdS and cubic CdTe. Interdiffusion at the CdS/CdTe interface is considered to affect the performance of the devices [1]. The formation of a mixed crystal or a graded layer at the interface causes a reduction in the lattice mismatch at the CdS/CdTe junction [2] and then a reduction in the number of interfacial states and recombination centers, thus enhancing the solar cell performance [3, 4].The objective of this work is to investigate the transmittance, photoluminescence (PL) and structure of CdSi-xTex thin films prepared by annealing the spray-deposited CdS:In thin films in the presence of tellurium vapor. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used for exploring the structure. Transmittance is used to deduce the absorbance where its first derivative was used to find the bandgap energy which varies with composition. The evolution of the PL spectra as functions of tellurium concentration was evident and it confirmed the inhomogeneities of the films."

Jan 1, 2011