Search Documents

By Zongliang Zhang

Electrowinning is a significant step in metal extraction processes. Because the nature of electrowinning is to reduce metal from its oxidized state, substantial energy consumption accompanies it. Electrowinning processes of different metals have much in common—the deposition of the metal on the cathode and the counter-reaction on the anode. An advanced model was developed that can be applied to a variety of metal electrowinning processes. A model for specific metals can be readily obtained by modifying parameters such as potential, kinetics, and side reactions in the model. The model incorporates mass transfer, gas-liquid flow, electrochemistry, and deposition, making it a comprehensive electrowinning model. The model is applied to copper, nickel, and zinc and verified with the experimental results. In addition, the parameter settings and results of different metals were compared, showing that this model has great versatility and accuracy, thereby making it an efficient and effective research tool.

By Juha Järvi

Outokumpu Zinc Oy has two separate roasting lines with fluidized bed furnaces and waste heat boilers for calcine collection and heat recovery. During the last 30 years, zinc production in Kokkola plant has increased continuously and at the same time the raw materials have changed. Therefore, the waste heat boiler has been under continuous research and development. The waste heat boiler plays a significant role in the process and consequently the reliability and efficiency of the device is important for the effectiveness of the entire process. Many changes have been made to the boiler in the last decades. New radiation tube screens, tube bundles, and baffle-plate constructions have been added to the boiler and also rapping systems for the dust have been developed. The latest improvement to the boilers was a baffle wall, located in the middle of the radiation section roof in the first boiler, and baffle plates in the lower part of the convection section in the second boiler. The new boiler design and optimization were carried out using physical water and air-dust modeling as well as computational fluid dynamics. The modeling work agrees well with experiences in practice. The latest developments have increased the operating hours per year and the effectiveness of the waste heat boiler.

Jan 1, 2002

By A. J. Paul, K. O. Yu

"Today, foundries are moving towards the use of models and design tools to gain a competitive advantage in producing castings of high desired quality. This leads to a growing alliance between foundries, software developers and researchers seeking to model, visualize and understand the phenomena taking place during the casting process. In addition, there is a need to develop affordable techniques to produce parts in small lot sizes. This leads to the development of a Flexible Manufacturing System consisting of: (1) up-front computer-aided engineering; (2) computer integrated proto typing with solid freeform fabrication; and (3) fabrication of the actual mold and related equipment to cast the part.This paper discusses some of the developments that are taking place today in the areas of modeling the physical phenomena during the casting process as well as towards developing a Flexible Manufacturing System for producing cast parts. Areas that require most work involve prediction of defects and mechanical properties using simplified analyses. In addition, electronic data sharing for collaborative engineering between geographically dispersed team members is also discussed. Case studies are presented showing successes as well as failures.IntroductionCasting, one of the oldest forms of metalworking, has recently seen a flurry of developments in the area of solidification modeling. These developments have come about after the realization that, in order to stay competitive, foundries need to reduce their scrap rate and production costs, and increase casting quality. Even though this is not new knowledge for foundry engineers, the tools to help them achieve this goal are just being developed and put in place for use by foundries. Several state-of-the-art software packages are currently available to analyze the solidification behavior in complex shaped castings. These packages make use of several different approaches for solving the various problems associated with casting processes. The overall architecture of a comprehensive solidification modeling system is shown in Figure 1."

Jan 1, 1994

By Suzzann Nordwick

Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in the development of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) technology to treat acid mine drainage (AMD). Bench-scale testing, field demonstrations, and engineered applications of SRBs for the treatment of AMD will be presented. Designs include an in situ bioreactor installed in the subsurface workings of the Lilly Orphan Boy Mine in 1994, the SRB bioreactors installed at the Calliope Mine from 1998 to 2001, the integrated biological reactors built at the Surething Mine in 2001, and the ongoing development of a replaceable cartridge system. SRB technology benefits include the reduction of dissolved metal ions to insoluble metal sulfides and the neutralization of the AMD resulting from the production of bicarbonate from the oxidation of organic nutrients. This paper will address engineering design criteria including the selection of organic media and system permeability and complete mitigation of AMD. Research was funded under Interagency Agreement No. DW899388-70-01-1 between the US EPA and the US DOE and was conducted by MSE Technology Applications, Inc., through the National Environmental Technology Laboratory (DOE Contract No. DE-AC22-96EW96405) at the Western Environmental Technology Office located in Butte, Montana.

Jan 1, 2003

By Pranav Deshpande

The wear behavior of metal matrix composites differs from that of the monolithic metallic counterparts because composite materials have multiple constituents in their structures and these constituents wear at different rates. It was observed that under low wear stresses, abrasive wear prevailed. As the wear stress increases, pullout of reinforcement occurs and both abrasive wear and wear due to pullout contribute to the overall composite wear. A model of wear taking into account both types of wear has been developed. A critical pullout wear stress was suggested for each composite. Below the critical wear stress, no pullout of reinforcement occurs. It turns out that the critical wear stress simply equals to the ratio of the interfacial strength between the matrix and the reinforcement to the friction coefficient between the reinforcement and the wear counter surface. The critical wear stress is independent of the particle size of the reinforcement. From data on wear of 53% WC composites, the equation of wear for 32% WC composites was obtained. Experimental results agreed well with the predicted wear rate of this composites. This provides an excellent verification of the wear model developed by Lin and Deshpande. Wear data from Modi et al. in the literature were also perfectly fitted with the model.

Jan 1, 2006

By D. I. Chalmers

The Brockman rare-metals and rare earth resource is located within volcanic and volcanogenic sediments of the later Proterozoic Halls Creek Group in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Exploration including surface trenching, percussion and diamond drilling has defined a major resource of rare-metals and heavy rare earth elements. The host&apos; is a steeply dipping ash-flow tuff, described informally as the Niobium Tuff, enriched in zirconium, hafnium, yttrium, niobium, tantalum, rare earth elements, gallium and beryllium. The mineralization is fine- grained (<20 micrometres) and is the result of alteration and re- mobilization of comparatively simple precursor minerals such as columbite and zircon by fluorine-rich deuteric solutions that were retained in the tuff following eruption. The ultra fine-grained structure of the tuff precludes mineral liberation and separation by physical methods. However, values can be converted to water soluble sulphates by reacting with concentrated sulphuric acid at 250°C. The solution containing aluminium, niobium, tantalum, zirconium, hafnium, yttrium, rare earths and gallium can then be processed to pure products in a sequence of solvent extraction and ion-exchange steps. As a result of these processing techniques, the commercial products obtainable from the resource include mixed rare earth and yttrium concentrates, zirconium-hafnium concentrate, niobium-tantalum concentrate and ceramic grade alumina. Further separation could result in high purity products suitable for ceramic and electronic applications.

Jan 1, 1992

By L. N. Ertzeva

The present work is dedicated to investigation of the sulfidizing process of ore pyrrhotite concentrate with recovery of a sulfide material, enriched with non-ferrous metals, and waste pyrite, with downstream separation by a certain beneficiation method.

Jan 1, 2006

By Benjamin Vidales

Copper in concentrations above 0.5 weight percent in iron and steel causes hot shortness. This tendency is intensified in the presence of dissolved tin above 0.05 weight percent in the alloy. The understanding of the mechanism of removal of copper from molten iron and steel is of industrial importance. In this investigation, we present the experimental results of the removal of copper from molten iron using sulphide flux in the temperature range 1000°-1500°C. The solution thermodynamic properties of binary sulphide melts have been estimated by using the relevant phase diagrams and the behaviour of copper sulphide in these melts is discussed. The kinetics and thermodynamics of the removal reaction are also explained and, the experimental results are also reported showing the equilibrium distribution of copper and sulphur in molten iron.

Jan 1, 1995

By Jürgen Antrekowitsch

Typical zinc oxides recovered from wastes like steel mill dusts and neutral leaching residues are of a low quality because of impurities like fluorine, chlorine, lead and others. Therefore, they are not comparable to technical grade zinc oxides produced in “French” or “American Process”. Some new developments, most of them still in pilot scale, try to establish processes where higher qualities of the product should be achieved. Zinc oxides are not only supposed to be an input material for electrolytic zinc production. Far more, they should find their way into the zinc oxide market as a substitute for technical grade zinc oxides. Furthermore, a new field of application for these oxides has been investigated at the department of Nonferrous Metallurgy, University of Leoben. Because of a higher acceptance concerning different impurities in relation to zinc winning electrolyses, a use in electrolytic galvanizing shows an interesting option. Therefore, synthetic zinc oxides with different impurities were generated to study the effect of these impurities especially on the quality of the zinc layer. Typical steel sheets, as used for car bodies, were electrolytically galvanized and the resulting layer was analysed, as main impurities compounds of fluorine, chlorine, iron, lead and calcium were used for the investigations. Beside the layer quality, the current efficiency and the possible galvanizing speed were examined. The results give an indication, weather such an alternative application can be feasible from a technical and economical point of view or not. 597

Jan 1, 2008

By José Luiz Rodrigues Bravo

The production of electrolytic copper with assured quality corresponding to international standards, in a conventional electrorefkery of a custom smelter, is a hard and cautious task, if no advanced technologies for selective control of electrolyte impurities are available. The improper control of the amount of As , Sb and Bi in the anode that enter the tankhouse , attributable either to a bad schedule of concentrate input or to the unavailability of clean concentrates in the international market , as well as the lack of means to maintain the suitable level of these elements in the electrolyte together with other operational circumstances, can result in off-grade copper, as well as affect the starting sheet chemically and physically. This paper presents in a practical way the relationship between the operational conditions and the cathode and starting sheet quality produced at CMSA, covering the period of the last five years of operation, discusses the technologies available in the market for antimony and bismuth removal and compare the results of testwork, achieved in the laboratories of CMSA, using two resins not associated with patented technologies.

Jan 1, 1997

By John E. Litz

Metal-bearing flue dusts are produced by some ferrous and non-ferrous industries. Many dusts are being or can be treated for recovery of metal values. Operating and proposed flowsheets for the most common dusts are reviewed. Advantages, disadvantages, product marketability, and cost implications are discussed for each flowsheet.

Jan 1, 1992

By Richard Hollis

The Mount Isa copper smelter was expanded in 1998 to a capacity of over 250000 t/y anode copper. This tonnage will be produced from a single stream consisting of an Isasmelt smelting furnace, and four Peirce-Smith converters - one of which was installed as part of the expansion project. During the course of the expansion project Mount Isa Mines Limited (MIM) signed an agreement with WMC Fertilizers Ltd (WMCF) to supply sulphur containing smelter gases over the fence to a new sulphuric acid plant to be built by WMCF. This will result in a further increase in copper production by reducing the time when smelting is curtailed by Air Quality Control restrictions. As well as the need to modify the primary gas system to connect to the acid plant, the hoods and crossover ducts and their support structures on the original three converters required replacement, and secondary ventilation was also needed to improve converter aisle hygiene. Each of these areas was addressed by the project. Preliminary ideas for carrying out the modifications were found to have a serious impact on converter aisle operations, and would have led to a production loss of over 50000 tonnes of copper. Following benchmarking in other copper smelters, a suitable construction plan was developed and carried out to minimise this loss. This paper describes the methodology and construction plan adopted.

Jan 1, 1999

By D. J. Goodwill

BHP Copper operates a 3,400 tpd dry concentrate, single burner, Outokumpu flash smelting furnace (FSF) at their San Manuel copper smelter in Arizona. The very fine (-325 mesh), dry concentrate is fed to the burner from a 550 metric ton (nominal) capacity furnace feed bin via two drag chain feeders. During the 10-year history of the furnace, operations have been plagued by serious flooding problems. The fine concentrate sometimes becomes aerated during discharge from the bin and flows like a fluid at very high uncontrollable rates to the burner. This results in upset conditions at the concentrate burner leading to poor furnace metallurgy. This paper will examine the problems of uncontrolled feed from the furnace bin (i.e. flooding), and&apos; instantaneously feeding a flash smelting burner. It will show that a drag chain is a poor choice of feeder when high rates are needed, and that drag chains always produce a funnel flow pattern in a bin. BHP&apos;s drag chains cause narrow diameter, high velocity flow channels within the stored material. Consequently, there is insufficient residence: time for the concentrate to fully de-aerate before discharge, hence flooding occurs. In addition to the flooding problem, drag chains create a pulsating flow to the concentrate burner due to the tendency for material to slough off in discrete chunks at the discharge end of the slow moving chain conveyor. During the scheduled FSF rebuild in May 1999, BHP intends to remove the drag chains, modify the bin to a mass flow design and to use STAMET® multi-disc feeders to accurately and instantaneously control the rate of discharge from the bins. Air slides will be used&apos; to convey the concentrate to the burner.

Jan 1, 1999

By C. Flores

The direct cementation of copper from a loaded D2EHPA 20 % vol. in kerosene using zinc, zinc-lead alloy and iron metallic powders was studied. Copper was loaded into the organic solvent from an aqueous copper sulfate solution. Results indicated that copper is reduced spontaneously with relatively fast reaction rates. The effects of several operating parameters such as water content in the organic system, initial copper concentration, reductant surface area, oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere, intensity of the agitation and temperature on the galvanic stripping of copper were studied. For a better understanding of the electrochemical reactions involved in the galvanic stripping, the dissolution of metallic copper in the organic solvent was also studied. Copper did not dissolve unless a small amount of water was present in the organic system. The results and possible reaction mechanisms are discussed.

Jan 1, 1999

By P. A. Davidson, D. J. Short

"In this paper we describe a 'non-contact' electromagnetic nozzle suitable for sprayforming and gas atomization processes. In such processes there is a need to control the flow rate and diameter of the liquid metal jet whilst minimising contamination of the stream. This can be achieved using an electromagnetic valve, which partially levitates the jet in freespace, using a segmented cylinder surrounded by an induction coil. This valve will significantly enhance the quality of the titanium alloys and nickel-based superalloys used in sprayforming and gas atomization. This paper describes the design and test of a laboratory prototype valve based on experiments performed with liquid tin.1. Introduction In many industries there is an increasing need for clean, high quality metals and alloys based on titanium and nickel. Two important processes are: 1) Spray deposition which allows the liquid metal to be converted to a near-net shape, thus alleviating the need for subsequent forging and extensive machining and; 2) Powder production of titanium by gas atomisation.In centrifugal spray deposition of titanium (see figure 1) the metal is induction melted in a cold crucible. The crucible consists of a number of water-cooled segments, which allows the high frequency magnetic field of the coil to pass through the crucible, and into the melt. The charge is melted by the induced eddy currents. Locally at the crucible walls the liquid metal solidifies, and is contained within a. 'skull' of its own solid, thus reducing contamination from the crucible wall. Once melted the metal is poured through an electrically heated graphite nozzle and into the spray forming chamber. The principal limitation of the process to-date, however, is that it currently uses a graphite and /or ceramic nozzle to direct the flow of liquid metal to the atomizing disk and as such there is considerable risk of nozzle erosion with inevitable effects in terms of contamination of the melt stream and variability in flow conditions. In this research programme we develop a. non-contact electromagnetic nozzle, which will totally eliminate refractories and/or ceramic materials from the melting and casting process. This will greatly enhance the technological capabilities of sprayforming and gas atomization processes."

Jan 1, 1999

By B. Q. Li, H. C. de Groh, X. Lu

"A fully 3-D, transient finite element model is developed to represent the magnetic damping effects on complex fluid flow, heat transfer and electromagnetic field distributions in a metallic melt. The model development is based on our in-house finite element code for the fluid flow, heat transfer and electromagnetic field calculations. The numerical model is tested against numerical and experimental results for water as reported in literature. Various numerical simulations are carried out for the melt convection and temperature distribution with and without the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Numerical results show that magnetic damping can be effectively applied to stabilize melt flow, reduce turbulence and flow levels in the melt and over a certain threshold value a higher magnetic field resulted in a greater reduction in velocity. Also, for the study of melt flow instability, a long enough running time is needed to ensure the final fluid flow recirculation pattern. Moreover, numerical results suggest that there seems to exist a threshold value of applied magnetic field, above which magnetic damping becomes possible and below which the convection in the melt is actually enhanced.1. INTRODUCTIONThe imposition of a DC magnetic field on a moving, electrically conducting fluid, such as molten metal or semiconductor melt, produces an opposing Lorentz force that results in a reduction of flow velocity in the liquid. This effect has been explored in both the semiconductor and metals industries to control natural convection and/or surface tension induced Marangoni convection as well as thermally induced flow instability during solidification processing of these melts [1-6]. A mathematical model can be of great use in developing both fundamental understanding of the fluid-magnetic field interactions in these magnetically-assisted processing systems and basic guidelines for process design, control and optimization.This paper presents a 3-D mathematical model for magnetically damped fluid flow and heat transfer in a melt cavity, which is useful for interpreting results for unidirectional solidification processes at slow solidification rate, and some preliminary results concerning the magnetic damping effects on the flow instability in the melt. The model development is based on the finite element solution of the Navier-Stokes equations, energy equations and equations for induced electric field. The model is tested against reported results and is then applied to study the fluid flow and thermal distribution in the metallic melt with and without an external magnetic field."

Jan 1, 1999

By Adam Powell, Soobhankar Pati

"Solid Oxide Membrane (SOM) Electrolysis is a new energy-efficient zero-emissions process for producing high-purity magnesium and high-purity oxygen directly from industrial-grade MgO. SOM Recycling combines SOM electrolysis with electrorefining, continuously and efficiently producing high-purity magnesium from low-purity partially oxidized scrap. In both processes, electrolysis and/or electrorefining take place in the crucible, where raw material is continuously fed into the molten salt electrolyte, producing magnesium vapor at the cathode and oxygen at the inert anode inside the SOM. This paper describes a three-dimensional multi-physics finite-element model of ionic current, fluid flow driven by argon bubbling and thermal buoyancy, and heat and mass transport in the crucible. The model predicts the effects of stirring on the anode boundary layer and its time scale of formation, and the effect of natural convection at the outer wall. MOxST has developed this model as a tool for scale-up design of these closely-related processes.IntroductionSolid Oxide Membrane (SOM) Electrolysis is a variation on the Hall-Héroult process for molten salt electrolysis of oxides which promises to solve many of the problems of its predecessors. Magnesium in particular is both soluble in molten salts and highly reactive, such that it migrates to the anode and reacts with the oxygen or C02 anode product, reducing current efficiency to as low as 10-20%. But a zirconia solid electrolyte between the molten salt and anode blocks this reaction, boosting current efficiency to at least 90%. Separating the anode from the molten salt also opens up anode material selection to liquid metals and SOFC cathode materials such as Lai.xSrxMn03 (LSM) and YCr03. And zirconia's selectivity makes the oxygen by-product very pure."

Jan 1, 2012

By Tom Lewis

This report discusses the evaluation of the ENVIRO-CLEAN PROCESS, a technology developed by Lewis Environmental Services, Inc. for the recovery of metals such as chromium, mercury, copper, cadmium, lead, and zinc from surface and groundwater streams. This new heavy metal removal process (patent-pending) utilizes granular activated carbon with a proprietary conditioning pretreatment to enhance heavy metal adsorption combined with electrolytic metal recovery to produce a saleable metallic product. The process generates no sludge or hazardous waste and the effluent meets EPA limits. A 50 gpm system was installed for recovering hexavalent chromium from a ground water stream at a site located in Fresno, California. The effluent from the activated carbon system was reinjected into the ground water table with the hexavalent chromium concentration < 10 ppb. The system simultaniously removed trichloroethylene (TCE) to concentrations levels < 0.5 ppb. The activated carbon is regenerated off-site and the chromium electrolytically recovered. The full scale system has treated over 5 million gallons of ground water since installation.

Jan 1, 1996

By Norbert L. Piret

During smelting of copper, arsenic in the feed reports to a large extent to the gas phase and some enters the anode copper. From the gas phase it is transferred during wet gas cleaning directly, or indirectly after dust processing, to aqueous solution. During the electrorefining and anode slimes processing, the anode arsenic content is also transferred to aqueous solution. Technology for the efficient removal of arsenic from process streams and cleaning of aqueous effluents is well established. However, the arsenic-bearing products, which thereby are generated, can vary widely in consistency, quality and quantity, from large amounts of gypsum contaminated with water-soluble arsenic compounds to residues with high arsenic content &apos; or arsenic products. Arsenic management in a copper smelter not only is involved with the duty of compliance to the gaseous and aqueous emissions standards but also should have as objective the minimization of the generation of arsenic-bearing and, in general, heavy metal-bearing solid waste. The present paper outlines options and the associated economic aspects for minimization of arsenic-bearing solid waste generation, for improvement of the environmental compatibility of the residues to be deposited and for the .production of commerciable arsenic compounds under appropriate market conditions.

Jan 1, 1999

By G. C. Yao

Iron and silicon impurities can form needle and branch shape intermetallie compounds in molten aluminum when there is no manganese. It is difficult to separate them from molten aluminum by electromagnetic separation. The Fe-Si-AI and Fe-AI intcrmetallic compounds were transformed into Mn-Fe-Si-AI and Mn-Fe-AI compounds by the addition of manganesc into molten aluminum, In molten aluminum the morphology of these intermetallic compound particles is lumpish and spherical. Migration resistance of these impurity particles is small, which is beneficial to separation. FeSiMnAl4 and FeMnAl6 arc paramagnetic. These impurity particles can be moved by magnetic force and can be separated from the molten aluminum.

Jan 1, 2003