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By F. Kassabji

This publication presents the main experimental and theoretical results on the recovery of aluminum scrap (dross and Used Beverage Can) without use of any addition of fluxing salts. Dross and UBC's processing experiments have been conducted in a rotary plasma furnace operating in the transferred and non-transferred mode, using different plasma gases. The investigation involved the treatment of more than 100 kg of dross and other aluminum residues using plasma torches with less than 100 kW power. The experimental work showed that this process is .far more economical and kind to the environment than the conventional route using a salt flux. An equilibrium thermodynamic calculation at elevated temperature makes possible the prediction of by-products at various temperatures for different plasma gases.

Jan 1, 1994

By Laurentiu Nastac, Ruslan Mudryy

"This paper investigates the solidification of cast energetic materials. An active cooling and heating (ACH) technology and a mechanical vibration (MV) technology were applied to achieve unidirectional solidification during casting and to reduce cracks, gas pores, and shrinkage defects. The design parameters of these technologies were developed via Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling and thermal stress analysis. Concerning the ACH technology, the number of cooling/heating sections and their temperature profiles and time sequences were optimized based on the thermo-physical properties of the energetic material as well as the riser and mold diameter, thickness and type. The ACH technology will also decrease the thermal stresses during casting of energetic materials and therefore minimize the formation of potential cracks that may form during the casting process. The MV technology will help to remove air entrapped during pouring process and decrease the detrimental gap size between the projectile and the solidified energetic material.IntroductionCasting processes are widely employed in the manufacture of products with intricate shapes and, in particular, in applications where the material of the final product is sensitive to machining. It is especially useful in processing of energetic materials. The cooling conditions applied in the casting process can affect the quality of the final cast in terms of void formation, residual stress distributions, and mold separation. Substantial shrinkage is also observed due to the density change upon solidification [1-3]. Residual stresses are known to be closely related to the formation of cold cracks and hot tears during casting. The formation of a gap between the mold and the cast material is of critical importance due to its deleterious effect on heat removal and on crack formation. In the casting of energetic materials all these defects can significantly impair the detonation velocity, Gurney energy, and insensitive munitions characteristics of the formulation, and lead to catastrophic accidents in explosives handling [ 4-5]. Imposition of carefully controlled cooling condition is thus critical in optimizing the cast quality that could help avoid such destructive effects."

Jan 1, 2013

By James C. Sever

The mode of operation of dolomite kilns at a magnesium reduction plant using the Magnatherm process was designed to minimize operation cost and maximize kiln refractory life. Analysis of downstream operation issues shows the quality metric for dolime changed from loss on ignition to specific surface area. This produced a complete change in kiln operation; the net results being major plant productivity increases decrease in operating cost, and increases in both kiln operating costs and reline frequency.

Jan 1, 2015

By W. -D. Schneider, B. Schwab

Like all metals, zinc can be recycled theoretically without end. To demonstrate environmentally friendly use of zinc, it is necessary to increase the recycling rate. In this regard, the Imperial Smelting Process developed in the forties and fifties in the United Kingdom has become more and more important. This unique process combined with a sinter plant, hot briquetting, and direct injection through the ISP furnace tuyeres offers ideal possibilities to recycle all kinds of zinc and lead bearing materials. Possible secondary materials include Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) dust, zinc-containing sludges and even zinc/carbon batteries. This high temperature process also destroys all organic materials, like dioxin, and can be seen as a sink for many harmful substances.

Jan 1, 2000

By Edilson Marques Magalhães, Danielly Da Silva Quaresma, José Antônio da Silva Souza, João Nazareno Nonato Quaresma, Emanuel Negrão Macêdo

"The production of alumina from bauxite using the Bayer process generates the residue known by red mud. This material can be used as a source for concentration and recovery of valuable metals such as titanium. The greatest difficulty of concentrating titanium compounds is the large amount of iron oxide present in red mud > 30% by weight. This paper shows the extraction of the iron oxide, increasing the concentration of the titanium compounds. The red mud is leached with H2SO4 at 30% concentration and temperature range of 60°C, 80°C and 90°C. Analysis of the leached and concentrated was made to verify the effectiveness of the iron oxide extracting process and the titanium compounds concentration viability.2- IntroductionIn the state of Para is located the Industrial Unit Alumina of North of the Brazil S/A (Alunorte), created to produce and commercialize alumina, aluminum oxide, Al2O3. The ALUNORTE with Aluminum Brasileiro S/A (Albras) and Mining Rio do Norte S/A (MRN) complete the production cycle of aluminum in the state. Although the production of alumina has a importance great for the socio-economic status, as in any area other, generates a amount large of waste, thus causing environmental impacts. Pará State has produced 25 million tons of bauxite (Pinto, 2010), of which 60% were transformed into alumina plant in Pará and Maranhão by ALUNORTE by ALCOA, generating approximately 9,000,000 tons of waste known as Red Mud (RM). Due to the high reactivity this material is considered dangerous, and currently there is no operating process capable of reuse all the material produced at any refinery. The search for industrial processes in order to reuse these wastes can contribute to reducing the overall impact of the production process of alumina. In this context, this paper estudied, within the research line of Solid Waste valorization the mining industry and metallurgy, a process that makes possible the red mud as a source of raw material, in other words, seeks to maximize the use of red mud as raw material for concentration and or recovery of titanium compounds in both the crystalline form of anatase, rutile and ilmenite, avoiding the predatory extraction of natural resources of these materials. Applying definitely the concept of self-sustainability of the mining industry and metallurgy."

Jan 1, 2012

By Xuemei Zheng, Aiyuan Ma, Yonggang Zuo, Jinhui Peng, Shiwei Li, Libo Zhang

The effect of moisture content on the dielectric properties and microwave drying behavior of zirconium hydroxide was studied by using an open-ended sensor dielectric measurement system at the frequency of 2.45 GHz. The experimental results showed that moisture content can significantly influence the variation of dielectric properties. Dielectric constant, loss factor and loss tangent all increase with the increasing moisture content. Compared with the conventional drying method, the microwave-assisted drying method resulted in a substantial decrease (81.8%) in the drying time, and the drying effect was better at the lower power level of 600 W. This study offers the useful information on dielectric properties of zirconium hydroxide, which can be used for developing microwave drying applications in mineral processing and designing better microwave sensors for measuring zirconium hydroxide moisture content.

Jan 1, 2015

By Luciano B. Oliveira, Alexandre M. Stumbo, Luis G. C. Marques, Valdo S. Marques, Sergio N. Monteiro

"Similar to the ethanol program, initiated more than 30 years ago, the recently created biodiesel program in Brazil is expected to rely on private initiative based on agribusiness for vegetable oil production. Campos dos Goytacazes is a large county in the northern of the state of Rio de Janeiro with land still available for oily vegetables plantation in addition to the land traditionally occupied by sugar cane plantation, which is used to produce ethanol. In order to extend the biodiesel program to Campos dos Goytacazes, the State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro (UENF) is conducting a technical project for the development of the infrastructure for biodiesel production. In this work, the infrastructure based on versatile equipment for biodiesel esterification built in the Center for Alternative Energy of the UENF is presented.IntroductionBiofuels are gaining worldwide attention as a possible economical solution for the prediction of declining reserves of petroleum and related increase in price of barrel. However, nowadays, a more relevant question is the climate changes caused by burning fossil fuels. This is especially the case of coal and petroleum based fuels, mainly gasoline and diesel that propel the majority of vehicles and generate a large amount of CO2 emissions responsible for global warming. This combination of economical an environmental problems is already providing a strong motivation to substitute conventional fossil fuels by renewable biofuels. More than just the interest of the market financial forces, government legislation is imposing a new order that obliges the use of biofuel. Many countries including the USA, the European Community, Japan and Brazil are committed to gradually substitute biofuels into their fleet of vehicles."

Jan 1, 2008

By Shilai Yuan, Huimin Lu, Zhijiang Gao, Panpan Wang

"Solvent refining of silicon through using Si-Al melts is a valid method to remove the impurities from metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si) melt. The thermodynamic behavior of impurities Fe, Al, Ca, Ti, Cu, C, B and P in MG-Si during the solidification of MG-Si was studied based on the available thermodynamic parameters and experimental data. The morphology of inclusions was investigated by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The chemical composition of inclusions in MG-Si and Al-Si melt was analyzed by EPMA. It is found that the amount of white inclusion reduces and most impurities are solved into the Al-Si melts. After solidification of Si–Al alloy using induction heating and acid leaching, impurities can be effectively removed. The solidification of silicon from the Si–Al melt is found to be more effective for purification than general silicon solidification.IntroductionPhotovoltaic energy is one of promising energy resources in a sustainable society because of its inexhaustibility and cleanliness. Although the production and installation of solar cells have increased significantly during the last decade, the cost of solar cell installation is still high. Multicrystalline silicon has now become the main material in the photovoltaic market because of its low production cost and because of the relative high conversion efficiency of solar cells made from this material, which has been studied for a long time [1-3].Electronic grade (EG) silicon (99.9999999% Si) is commonly used as the raw material to produce SOG-Si (99.9999% Si). Silicon produced from the chemical routes restricts the development of solar cells due to environment threaten, high energy consumption and low productivity. Purification of metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si) is a low cost, environment friendly method. Although several metallurgical processes such as directional solidification, vacuum refining and electron beam melting [4], have been developed, the cost reduction and refining efficiencies for manufacturing silicon is still have to be further optimized.In the purification process, it is difficult to remove boron and phosphorus by the conventional metal refining method. The refining efficiency depends on the segregation behavior of different elements in solid silicon and the liquid phase. The segregation ratios of all investigated impurities were found to be much smaller than the segregation coefficients between solid and liquid Al-Si melts [5]. For instance, the segregation coefficient of B in Si is 0.8 at the silicon melting point (1687K), whereas it is around 0.2 when silicon is solidified from Si-Al melt at 1273K. For phosphorus the segregation coefficient is 0.06 when silicon is solidified from Si-Al melt at 973K°C, which is much less than 0.35 for recrystallization from liquid silicon. Since the segregation coefficient of boron in silicon is 0.8, it cannot be removed by directional solidification."

Jan 1, 2014

By Edward Peters

Scandium (Sc) has unique properties and is one of the more valuable elements in the periodic table. Scandium can be used in solid oxide fuel cells and to produce high strength aluminium alloys of value, for example, in the aerospace industry. Scandium is often grouped together with the rare earth elements (REE). Amongst others, scandium can be found in bauxite residues, so called red mud. It is possible to extract and enrich scandium from red mud by leaching and solvent extraction. Scandium can then be recovered from the pregnant strip liquor by crystallization. The strip liquor will however still contain certain impurity elements. In the present work, a method for obtaining a pure scandium solid phase by direct crystallization from the strip liquor is evaluated. It was found that Fe and Ti co-precipitate with Sc under the conditions employed.

By Sudhir C. Dhara

An attempt has been made on the concentration of Platinum Group Metals (PGM) from the converter matte material by microbial .leaching. Biological oxidation of base metal sulfides such as iron, copper, nickel and free sulfur present in the matte material using Thiobacillus ferrooxidans is an alternative method to concentrate the PGM-and gold. The method which produces a platinum group metals concentrate is comparable to chemical processes and electrochemical process.

Jan 1, 1995

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 Thomas Buenger

The Hamburg smelter of Norddeutsche Affinerie AG is situated near the city of Hamburg’s downtown and is therefore particularly subjected to fulfill environmental requirements according to the German legal regulations. Thus, investments related to increasing concentrate throughput are always linked to packages to enhance the emission status of the smelter. This connection between environmental protection and productivity enhancement should be explained by the example of the Peirce-Smith converter plant of the Hamburg smelter. Such outstanding investments can be demonstrated by the transition from scrap charging via boat from the front side to a fully automatic and completely sucked scrap charging system.

Jan 1, 2009

By M. R. Barkhudarov

Semi-solid metal can be formed into useful products of near net shape and high quality. Use of this method has been limited, however, because of the difficulty of working with metal in the semi-solid state, which has strong shear rate, temperature and time-dependent properties. In this paper we describe a thixotropic model and apply it to the problem of small metal droplets impacting on a flat plate.

Jan 1, 1997

By Florian Kongoli

The production of a homogeneous self-fluxing sinter is an important step in iron making processes. A good sinler should have good permeability and reducibility and has to keep those characteristics for a certain time. An early melt down of the sinter in the blast furnace, where its solid state reduction is essential, would cause many problems such as low permeability and reductibility. Nevertheless, the important factors that influence these characteristics, such as the chemistry of the sinter and the fluxing effect during sintering and sinter reduction conditions have not yet been clarified, In today's new reality where many new minor components such as Al2O3 and MgO enter to the sinter through raw materials, the quantification of the fluxing effects during sintering becomes even more important. In this work, the liquidus surface and phase relations of the sinter primary melts in the CaO-FeO-Fe203-Si02 system at sintering conditions have been quantified. The fluxing effect of oxygen potential, Al2O3 and MgO has also been quantified by the means of some practical diagrams that can directly help the optimization of the sintering processes.

Jan 1, 2003

By Florian Kongoli

The production of a homogeneous self-fluxing sinter is an important step in iron making processes. A good sinter should have good permeability and reducibility and has to keep those characteristics for a certain time. An early melt down of the sinter in the blast furnace, where its solid state reduction is essential, would cause many problems such as low permeability and reductibility. Nevertheless, the important factors that influence these characteristics, such as the chemistry of the sinter and the fluxing effect during sintering and sinter reduction conditions have not yet been clarified. In today's new reality where many new minor components such as Al2O3 and MgO enter to the sinter through raw materials, the quantification of the fluxing effects during sintering becomes even more important. In this work, the liquidus surface and phase relations of the sinter primary melts in the CaO-FeO-Fe203-Si02 system at sintering conditions have been quantified. The fluxing effect of oxygen potential, Al2O3 and MgO has also been quantified by the means of some practical diagrams that can directly help the optimization of the sintering processes.

Jan 1, 2003

By R. Colás, A. Salas, M. P. Guerrero Mata, R. Garza

"The use of the finite element method (FEM) for studying the plastic behavior of metals has become a common practice over the past few years, because it has been proved to be a good means of evaluating processes parameters, and predicting and improving processes, avoiding the traditional trail and error technique. FEM was used via a commercial package (Abaqus) to create two dimensional models to simulate uniaxial tensile tests for a galvanized low carbon steel. The aim of the work was to analyse the plastic behaviour of a distribution of grains on the zinc cover of a set of galvanized low carbon steel samples. A mesh with lines 2 mm apart was drawn on one of the faces of the samples that were deformed at room temperature, at constant crosshead speed, stopping the deformation at different times. Before and during the stops the deformation measurements were recorded for further calculations in an image analyser in order to compare these with computational predictions, as well as validate the numerical model. The results of this study can be extended to other testing conditions, besides the model can be used for obtaining constitutive equations of the materials.INTRODUCTIONThe use of the finite element method has been widely spread during the last two decades in most engineering areas, it is a good means of obtaining approach values at a first try [1-4]. Thanks to the software and hardware developments it is now possible to run huge problems within hours or minutes, making the technique more accessible and useful for the industry.The aim of this work is to create a finite element model for the uniaxial simple tension test, and compare the results with some experimental results, and asses the validity of the model.The plastic behaviour of the materials with FEM has been studied for a long time [5] and there is always something new to learn about this behaviour of the metals in particular, as well as to characterized new materials and alloys [6,7]. The tension test has been used since XIX century to get knowledge of the materials [5,8], it is the test that has been used the most and the only that is fully standardized, although it has the limiting of low strains, it is still the most widely used, especially in the industry.Two different finite element models in two dimensions (2D) have been developed, one called the mesh model and the other one the grain model, attention was focused on the geometry and strain prediction. The model is validated with experimental test, by using the data and directly comparing it with the numerical predictions. All the tests were carried out at the same constant crosshead speed at room temperature. An analysis of the grid distortion using FEM and analytical methods has been carried out."

Jan 1, 2001

By Tian Sugui

By means of the long-term aging treated, creep properties measuring and microstructure observation, an investigation has been made into the microstructure and creep behavior of the casting and rolling GH4169 superalloy after long-term aged. Results show that, after the casting and rolling GH4169 superalloy treated by long-term aged, significant amount of " phase are dispersedly precipitated within the grains of the alloy, and some of the NbC, Cr7C3 carbide are distributed along the grain boundaries. In the range of the applied stresses and temperatures, the creep activation energies and stress exponents of LTA GH4169 alloy during steady state creep are calculated to be Q=541.1kJ/mol and n=16.2, respectively. During creep, the deformation mechanism of LTA GH4169 is thought to be the twinning and dislocation slipping within the twinning regions, and the damaging mode of the alloy is the intergranular fracture, and the non-smooth crystal surface is displayed in the fracture regions of the alloy. Thereinto, the carbides film formed along the grain boundaies has a few effect on the strength between the boundaries, which is a main reason of resulting in the alloy possessing a longer creep lifetimes.

Jan 1, 2009

By Takahiro Furuzono

Saganoseki Smelter and Refinery of Pan Pacific Copper Co., Ltd. started treating copper anode slimes using a unique hydrometallurgical process in chloride media in 1997. The process comprises the following stages, decopperizing, wet chlorination, solvent extraction for gold, silver chloride reduction, and separate reduction stages that treat the gold extraction raffinate with sulfur dioxide gas. Precious metals and rare metals in the copper anode slimes are dissolved in an aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid by oxidative leaching, which is termed wet chlorination. Gold is efficiently extracted from the chlorination liquor by dibutyl carbitol in the solvent extraction stage. Gold is reduced by oxalic acid from goldloaded dibutyl carbitol and recovered as gold powder. The gold powder is cast directly into granules or ingots of more than 99.99% purity without electrorefining. Selenium is recovered as a selenium residue by reduction with sulfur dioxide gas and refined through vacuum distillation. The plant was designed to process 132 tonnes of copper anode slimes per month and has a current capacity of 206 tonnes per month due to several enhancements. Compared with the conventional process, the hydrometallurgical process described here provides some advantages, in particular, a higher product quality, shorter gold-retention time, and reduction in environmental load.

By Dan Wang, Yuanbo Zhang, Guihong Han, Guanghui Li, Tao Jiang, Yanfang Huang

"Hematite concentrates are characterized by bad high-temperature reactivity and poor balling index, which restrict their large-scale application in the production of oxidized pellets. An organic additive, namely MHA, was authorized and used as binder recently in China. Compared with bentonite, the effects of MHA on compressive strength of hematite pellets at various firing conditions were investigated in this study. Experimental results showed the compressive strengths of preheated pellets with different binders were increased with increasing the preheating temperature and time. The compressive strength of preheated pellets with MHA binder was lower than that of pellets with bentonite, which can be ascribed to the high porosity of pellets with MHA binder. However, the compressive strength of roasted pellets with MHA binder was higher than that of pellets with bentonite. The compressive strength of finished pellets balled with MHA binder 1.0 wt% could meet the operation requirements of grate-kiln process.IntroductionHematite concentrates are characterized by bad high-temperature reactivity and poor balling index, which can lead to the appearance of those problems with increasing the energy consumption, shortening the useful life of equipment, and finally increasing the operation cost of oxidized pellets plants [1-2]. Some investigations have been conducted based on improving the pelletizing technique of hematite concentrates, such as pretreatment of raw materials [3-7], optimization of ore proportioning [8], addition of solid fuels [9-16], and so on. Employing high pressure grinding roller for the treatment of hematite concentrates revealed that the mechanical strength of wet green pellets could be improved. However, the mechanical strength of fired pellets was not improved obviously [7]. Huang, et al., pointed out that the preheating and roasting temperature may be decreased and the compressive strength of fired pellets could be increased by blending a certain proportion of magnetite concentrates with hematite [8]. Nevertheless, there are a variety of magnetite ores different in physical and chemical properties in China, resulting in the instability operation [17]."

Jan 1, 2012

By Deepu Philip, Pratik Agarwal, Ajay Kumar Shukla, Ishani Shukla, G Rajesh

Steel plants generally employ static BOF end point control models to arrive at a given temperature and chemistry at the end of blow. These end point models have now been supplemented with chaos control models to steer the blowing process in the right direction while the blow is in progress. Merely arriving at the correct end point temperature is however not adequate because in the subsequent stages as well the temperature variations can be large and unpredictable. The present paper deals with an integrated model to take into account the effect of all parameters affecting temperature and composition from tapping to the start of casting to minimize the use of LF or aluminum heating, and also minimize grade mixing. The application of lean operations strategy is explained in which the previous “Push System’ is changed to a “Pull System”, minimizing the use of ladle furnace or aluminum heating during steelmaking.

Jan 1, 2014