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By Kota Nakashima

Residues from titanium smelting tend to contain scandium. The scandiumis discarded because no suitable process exists for its recovery from the residue. Valuable-metal recovery from discharged residue is critical for environmental conservation and to achieve a sustainable society. Since 2015, JXNippon Mining&Metals has been developing a process for scandium recovery from the residue of a titaniumsmelting process. The process consists of the following steps: scandium concentrating by classification or neutralization, selective scandium leaching, impurity removal by neutralization, solvent extraction of scandium by using D2EHPA, purification, and roasting. We optimized the above steps to achieve an effective process to obtain scandium oxide (Sc2O3). In this paper, we introduce results from the bench-scale test of the scandium recovery flowsheet developed by JX Nippon Mining & Metals.

By Glenn Stevens

After 40 years of operation with the original design, Pan Pacific Copper determined it was necessary to rebuild the Saganoseki Flash Smelting Furnace to continue safe operation. The original design employed a rigid steel frame, which, through hearth growth, led to severe distortion of the frame. Contributing to the continued growth of the hearth were thermal cycles that occurred during the government mandated annual shutdowns. Hatch designed a unique sprung bound, pivoting binding frame to maximize crucible size within the existing furnace footprint, while integrating the PPC designed cooling jackets. The bound system maintains tight brick joints, while the new conductive hearth design with integrated bottom cooling produces a protective freeze layer to accommodate higher furnace throughput. Minimization of furnace downtime for the rebuild was achieved through effective construction planning, highly trained contractors, and through an efficient start-up and ramp-up to full production.

By Junhong Noh, Kug Sun Hong, Jung-Kun Lee, Bo Ding

"The photocatalytic splitting of water into H2 and O2 by oxide nanoparticles has received much attention. However, the full potential of photo-catalysts for efficient hydrogen generation out of water has not been fully realized yet due to unresolved limitations including the low electrical conductivity and ineffective carrier extraction. Here, we report composite oxide materials consisting of 1-dimensional (1-D) transparent conducting oxide (TCO) core and TiO2 shell. Highly conductive ITO nanowires were grown on a flexible SUS mesh as a core component. The photoelectrodes consisting of these 1-D nanocomposites have increased carrier mobility due to the TCO core, while the TiO2 shell provides the photocatalytic functionalities. In addition, the built-in-potential at the interface between TCO core and the TiO2 shell improves the collection of charge carriers from TiO2 to TCO. These factors altogether contribute to increasing the photocurrent of the device under light.I. IntroductionPhotocatalytic behavior of semicondcutors has been extensively explored since it was discovered in TiO2 in 197Os. When TiO2 is exposed to UV light, the light is absorbed and electron/hole pairs are generated in the conduction and valeence bands. Holes in valence band will oxide/mineralize pollutant target directly or indirectly (via mediator hydroxyl radical). If the adsorbed A is O 2, O 2 will react with electron from conduction band to generate hydroxyl radical as described in the second set ofreactions. The photocatalytic reaction is schematically explained in Figure 1.Photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells using the photocatalytic reaction have attracted emerging interest as a potential route to convert solar radiation into useful forms of energy by reaction such as water splitting to generate hydrogen1 or the reduction of carbon dioxide.2 Another application ofphotocatalysis is water splitting and CO2 reduction, both of which utilize the electrons that are optically excited to the conduction band. 3•4 For this purpose, the conduction level of the semiconductor should be higher than hydrogen production level (EHZ1HZO) while the valence band should be lower than water oxidation level (Eo21112O). Electrons and holes will be generated on the semiconductor site, and holes generate O 2 at semiconductor site, while electrons will migrate to counter electrode to execute reduction forming H2. In addition to that, materials should be chemically stable to resist photocorrosion and have long lifetime of electron/hole pairs. TiO2 is a suitable material from the viewpoint of band arrangement and chemical stability requirement"

Jan 1, 2012

By R. J. Kuczynski

The U.S. Bureau of Mines Reno Research Center operated a batch pilot plant to demonstrate high-temperature cyanide leaching for recovering platinum group metals (PGM) from automobile catalysts. Approximately 1,600 kg of used pellet, monolith, and metal support catalyst containing 1,680 g (54 tr oz) of PGM were processed. Forty-five-kilogram batches of used catalyst were leached with sodium cyanide solution at 160° C for 1 h under basic conditions in a countercurrent processing sequence to dissolve the PGM. Extractions from the used pellet catalyst ranged from 94 to 95 pct for Pd, 95 to 97 pct for Pt, and 64 to 81 pct for Rh. Extractions from the used monolith catalyst ranged from 7B to BB pct for Pd, 75 to 90 pct for Pt, and 43 to 71 pct for Rh. Heating the pregnant leach solutions to 275' C for 4 h destroyed the PGM-cyanide complexes, resulting in over 99.7 pct of the PGM precipitating from solution. The PGM precipitate was predominantly a powder metallic concentrate, typically analyzing greater than 50 pct PGM. Heating destroyed cyanide to less than 0.2 mg/L. Both the pellet and monolith residues were evaluated for disposal using the EPA Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure.

Jan 1, 1995

By B. J. Elliot

The Outokumpu Oy flash smelting furnace was designed for a capacity of 69,5 mtph of concentrate. The history of developments on the flash furnace, from the original operating capacity of 55 mtph to a proven capacity of 115 mtph of concentrate, is summarised. The new feature of operation at BCL Limited is ?the use of screened lump coal reduction in the settler region of the furnace. This paper considers the effects of settler bath reduction on the furnace smelting capacity, the condition of the furnace ?lining and bath, and ,the slag losses generated from the flash furnace and ultimately to discard. By using the settler bath reduction technique the capacity of the furnace for smelting new concentrate has been increased by 15% and hearth accretion has been eliminated by direct reduction with coal, which has also allowed the generation of a substantial protective lining on the furnace walls and roofs. As a result of improved slag losses from lump coal charging the metal recoveries on the flash furnace have increased from 70% to 87% for nickel, 68% to 82% for copper, and 28% to 45% for cobalt.

Jan 1, 1983

By M. T. Thomas

Sufficient development of the X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), the Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), and the Secondary Ion Mass pectroscopy (SIMS) has made these instruments ideal for solving problems related to mineral processing -particularly gold ore processing. XPS can determine both the surface composition and chemistry of ores and tailings, and the various phases within either of them. AES can also determine surface composition with the further advantage of having greater spatial resolution so the surface chemistry associated with specific minerals in the ore can be identified. This identification helps to clarify why some minerals pass through a chemical process unaffected, while others can be successfully treated. SIMS has an elemental sensitivity from one to four orders of magnitude greater than XPS or AES which makes it useful for detecting the presence of some elements in very low concentration (parts per million).

Jan 1, 1981

By John W. Lund

The Geo-Heat Center has been investigating the utilization of waste silica from the Cerro Prieto geothermal field for several years. The main objectives of the research were to com-bine silica with various additives to (1) form bricks for low cost housing, and (2) to produce a suitable road surfacing material. The various additives that were tested included hydrated lime, portland cement, plastic fibers, asphalt cement and emulsified asphalt. The silica-cement combination produced the strongest bricks and had the best weather resistance, whereas, the silica-lime combination produced the bricks with the lowest thermal conductivity and specific gravity density. The addition of plastic fibers to the silica-lime mixture improved both strength and weather resistance. The combination of asphalt and silica is not suitable as a road surfacing material, however, silica-cement appears promising.

Jan 1, 2006

By Jilai Xue, Jun Zhu, Yongqiang Liu

"Up-grading silicon feedstock by removing B and metal impurities can improve process efficiency and lower production cost in metallurgical processing for solar cells production. Hydrometallurgical study has been carried out in laboratory through alternative treatments of the metallurgical grade (MG) silicon (-200 mesh) by using hydrogen peroxide, hydrofluoric acid (4 mol/L) and NH4Cl-NH4 F (30:5) solution. The experiments were usually performed under mechanical agitation at 70 ? for 5 h. ICP-AES analysis showed that B content in MG silicon after the hydrometallurgical treatment has reduced by 92.4 %, and Fe, Al, and Ca contents by 98.8 %, 98.0 % and 81 %, respectively. Kinetics of these processes was also studied for better understanding of the effects of silicon powder size, acid concentration, leaching and oxidizing time on the processing chemistry.IntroductionAs one of the most clean and promising new energy, solar energy is used more and more in many countries all over the world, especially in United States, Japan and European Union. Most of industrialized states have made their national photovoltaic plans, which have stimulated further increase in use of solar energy. Photovoltaic Industry is at a high growth rate about 30 % [1-2]. For silicon solar cells to remain the mainstay for the photovoltaic industry it is necessary to develop a low-cost solar grade silicon feedstock [3]. At the same time, the availability of the currently M-G silicon from the semiconductor industries becomes limited [4]. With the advantages of low cost and low energy consumption, metallurgical routes to product solar–grade silicon get more attention [5]. These routes mainly include pickling, slagging, vacuum processing and directional solidification, etc [6]. Among them the most important processing step is the directional solidification, but it still can not satisfy the industrial demand for removing B. Removing B from Si remains as one of the most difficult and important processes in making M-G silicon [7]."

Jan 1, 2012

By Hongbo Zhao, Jun Wang, Wenqing Qin, Guanzhou Qiu, Xueduan Liu

Bio-hydrometallurgy technology was applied for the extraction of copper from the raw ores of Chambishi Mine in Zambia. A copper extraction of 93.29% was obtained for small scale column bioleaching within 63 days, while a copper extraction of 89.05% was achieved for large scale column bioleaching in 90 days, thus confirming the amenability of the raw ores for effective extraction via bioleaching. The bacteria were cultured in a 6-stage enlarge cultivation. The bacterial cultures with cell concentration of more than 1×108 cells/mL were added into a spray pond of sulfuric acid to be applied in the dump leaching, and a copper extraction of about 50% was achieved within 2 months. The production report revealed that the copper extraction increased by approximate 20%, and the acid consumption was reduced to around 35% as a consequence of adding the bacteria. The industrial demonstration of the bio-hydrometallurgy technique is now well established in Zambia, and further applications of bio-hydrometallurgy in both Zambia and Congo are currently in progress.

Jan 1, 2015

By Jiang Feng, Li Chuanhua, Zhang Libo, Peng Jinhui, Ju Shaohua

Solvent extraction of Cu2+ from the leaching liquor contain Cu and Fe use a microfluidic technology. Currently, the conventional copper extraction process has many problems such as long distance and small driving force of mass transfer. In order to solve the problems, studies are carried out on the extraction process of low grade copper leaching liquid using Lix984N as an extractant with a new microfluidic solvent extraction technology. The effects of flow rate on the separation and extraction efficiency between Cu and Fe are studied, and the results show that a steady liquid-liquid interface of laminar flow is form in the micro-extractor, and extraction efficiency is 78 % and 2.5 % for Cu and Fe at the contact times of 0.84s respectively. Besides, the separation coefficient between Cu and Fe is as high as 140.04. The studied microfluidic technology has the advantages like improving extraction efficiency and reducing reaction time and providing the potential application in the hydrometallurgy extraction of Cu.

Jan 1, 2015

By Arthur E. Morris

Fifty years ago when Professor Yazawa began his career, the field of process simulation and modeling was in its infancy. Since then, tremendous progress has been made in our ability to model metal production flowsheets from mine to refined metal. This progress has come about by parallel developments in basic understanding of process chemistry and in computational techniques. This paper will review the progress made in process understanding and modeling in lead, zinc, and copper metallurgy from its inception to the present, and the role of Professor Yazawa's work in furthering this progress. Specific examples wi1\ be given for the sintering of lead concentrates, slag fuming, zinc concentrate roasting, flash smelting of copper, and pyro-extraction of zinc. Factors limiting further progress will be described.

Jan 1, 2003

By Arthur E. Morris

Fifty years ago when Professor Yazawa began his career, the field of process simulation and modeling was in its infancy. Since then, tremendous progress has been made in our ability to model metal production flowsheets from mine to refined metal. This progress has come about by parallel developments in basic understanding of process chemistry and in computational techniques, This paper will review the progress made in process understanding and modeling in lead, zinc, and copper metallurgy from its inception to the present, and the role of Professor Yazawa's work in furthering this progress. Specific examples will be given for the sintering of lead concentrates, slag fuming, zinc concentrate roasting, flash smelting of copper, and pyro-extraction of zinc. Factors limiting further progress will be described.

Jan 1, 2003

By Jorge Gibson, P. Chris Pistorius, Megha Jampani

"The main reason for the significant carbon intensity of integrated steelmaking (approximately 1.8 tons of CO2 per ton of steel) is the use of carbon-based reductants in blast furnace ironmaking. Several changes to blast furnace ironmaking have been proposed as ways to reduce carbon intensity and cost. A conceptually simple two-zone blast furnace mass and energy balance can be used to quantify the expected impact of such process changes on coke rate, carbon intensity, and productivity. Examples to be discussed include top gas recycling, combining lower blast temperatures with increased coal injection to produce a rich top gas, using prereduced feed, and tuyère injection of natural gas. The use of the operating window – which illustrates how allowable flame temperatures and top-gas temperatures constrain feasible oxygen enrichment levels – is illustrated. Increased use of natural gas would lower the carbon intensity of blast furnace ironmaking.IntroductionBecause of the significant carbon intensity of steelmaking (approximately 1.8 tons of CO2 emitted per ton of steel produced) and the high production rate of steel (more than 1.4 billion tonnes per annum), steelmaking is responsible for a large percentage, approximately 6.7%, of world anthropogenic CO2 emissions [1]. By far the largest input of the carbon into conventional steelmaking is as coke, which is essential to blast furnace ironmaking. A typical fuel rate for blast furnace ironmaking is 450 kg of fuel per tonne of hot metal (THM). (""Fuel"" includes coke and injectants which partially replace coke; pulverized coal and natural gas are typical injectants.) Assuming the fuels to contain 90% carbon on average, and since nearly all of this carbon exits the steel plant as CO2, a fuel rate of 450 kg is equivalent to a CO2 intensity of 1485 kg/THM – by far the largest part of the total CO2 intensity of steelmaking.Blast furnace ironmaking is expected to remain the main source of new iron units; this paper gives some estimates of the extents to which further reductions in carbon intensity from blast furnace ironmaking is possible. A recent European assessment suggested that blast furnace process intensification options such as increased pulverized-coal injection or natural gas injection would yield only modest energy savings [2]. However, if the focus is on CO2 emissions rather than on total energy use, there would be an advantage to using fuels – such as natural gas – which have lower carbon contents relative to energy content."

Jan 1, 2014

By Xuewei Lv, Yuelin Qin, Guibao Qiu, Chenguang Bai

"Blast furnace slag (BF slag), is the main by-product in the ironmaking process, which contains large amounts of sensible heat. To recover the sensible heat, this paper described the hot experiments which were carried out in a rotary multi-nozzles cup atomizer, where the molten BFS was transformed into granules without water impingement; subsequently, a new method-pyrolysis the printed circuited board (PCB) with the hot BFS particle, was proposed for recovering the sensible heat in this study. The gaseous products were analyzed by gas analyzer. The residual of the PCB was analyzed by FT-IR and XRD respectively, and the obtained slag particles were analyzed by XRD.The results showed that it is a feasible process of pyrolyzing PCB powder with the hot BFS particle. The sensible heat of hot BF slag could be converted to chemical heat and a large amount of combustible gas could also be generated during the process.IntroductionDue to the rising of the product cost of blast furnace iron (BFI) and the increasing public awareness of environmental problems, the steel industries have to focus on the energy saving and emission reduction. Blast furnace slag (BF slag) is a byproduct from blast furnace exhaust temperature of 1450°C or so, is a high-quality waste heat resources. In China, the steel industry produces approximately 220Mt ofBFS per year, and the enthalpy of those slags is approximately equivalent to 13.3% of the whole energy consumption in the ironmaking process[!]. It can be seen, recycling waste heat is an important way of energy saving for iron and steel enterprises. The molten slag was treated by conventional water quenching method without any recovery of heat in spite of its huge potential. Also, the water quenching process consumes a plenty of water, pollutes the air and water[2]. Additionally, the extra energy is necessary for the drying process of slag to produce cement. As a kind of secondhand resource which can be reused, the BF slag contains a large amount of sensible heat. To recover the sensible heat of BF slag, three key problems should be considered, which refer to ( 1) the dry granulation of BFS without consuming water, (2) how to recover the heat of slag particles efficiently, (3) how to use the slag particles after heat recovery."

Jan 1, 2012

By Carlos Mauricio Fontes Vieira, Sergio Neves Monteiro, Thiago Samarão Motta

This work has as its objective to characterize ceramic bodies formulated with ornamental rock waste and two different clays to produce ceramic paver. Specimens were made by uniaxial press-molding at 20 MPa and then fired at 950 and 1050oC respectively. The determined technological properties were: plasticity, dry bulk density, linear shrinkage, water absorption and flexural rupture strength. The results showed that the type of the clay has strong influence on the properties of interest for heavy clay ceramics. The investigated waste must be incorporated in small amounts to avoid increasing in the porosity of the ceramics.

Jan 1, 2015

By Theo Lehner

The Rönnskär smelter has wide experience in the field of recycling of non-ferrous metals. Today, smelting and refining from primary and secondary raw materials are integrated in a complex flow sheet. Boliden operates a lead flash smelter, a lead refinery, a copper smelter and refinery, a sulphuric acid and sulphur dioxide plant, a slag fuming plant and precious metal plant at its Rönnskär smelter in the North of Sweden. The Business Area Smelter Operations also incorporates Boliden Bergsöe, Sweden's lead-acid battery recycler, and Norzink, Norway, where recycled zinc accounts for more than 20% of it's production. Raw materials for the Rönnskär smelter include concentrates, ashes, slags, metallic scrap, electronic scrap and electric arc furnace (EAF) steel-making dust. This paper briefly describes current operations and illustrates current measures to improve productivity. Limits to recycling as experienced by a non-ferrous smelter are, illustrated. The deportment of critical elements contained in raw materials is also discussed.

Jan 1, 1998

By Guozhu Ye, Mikael Lindvall

"Swedish iron ore contains about 0.1 %V. The vanadium is reduced to the hot metal in a blast furnace and oxidised to the slag in a converter. The high V-content, up to 5 % V, leads to a very limited external application of the steel slag in Sweden. Since 2004, MISTRA - the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research has together with the steel and mining industry in Sweden and Finland initiated and supported a long term project aiming at efficient recovery of vanadium in the slag, and at the same time a useful slag product with low V-content. The proposed concept consists of a reduction step and a phosphorus removal step. This paper will highlight some of the results with focus on the various metallurgical reactors used for slag reduction, including results from recently performed pilot trials using a DC furnace for cotreatment of metallurgical slags and other wastes.IntroductionToday, less than half of the produced LD-slag in Sweden is recycled to the blast furnace as a lime source and the rest is temporarily stored inside the steel plant. The steel slags cannot be used externally due to its content of vanadium and free lime. As the slag storage area is limited, this has become a problem for Swedish steel producers. The disposition of the slag is also a great waste of a valuable vanadium resource. The current potential value of vanadium in the discharged steel slag annually amounts to roughly US$ 100 million. Currently, Swerea MEFOS is conducting an 8-year vanadium recovery project called VILD (Vanadium in LD-slag) aiming at efficient recovery of vanadium and at the same time producing a useful slag product with low V-content. The project is financed by MISTRA - the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research and the steel and mining industry in Sweden and Finland. Various reactors and process options have been tested in the past 7 years, from 3 kg laboratory scale, 150 kg induction furnace, 3 MVA pilot DC furnace, 5 MVA pilot AC furnace, 5 tons Kaldo furnace, to full scale direct hot slag reduction in the industrial site (12 tons of slag). This paper will introduce the VILD-concept and review the experiences gained from these trials. The advantages and disadvantages of the different options will be discussed and concluded."

Jan 1, 2012

By Messias dos Santos Machado, Renato B. Godoy, Roberta Lima, Andressa Silva, Francisco Valenzuela-Díaz, Rene R. Oliveira, Esperidiana Moura

This work aims to incorporate the Bof White Clay, from Boa Vista, Paraiba State, Brazil, as natural nanofiller in Ehylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) and obtain flexible films. Nanocomposite was obtained using a twin-screw extruder, and film formed using a blow extruder machine. The flexible film nanocomposite was characterized, by tensile tests, XRD, DSC and their properties were evaluated. The results showed a good interaction between the clay and the EVOH resulting in an increase of properties of films nanocomposites as compared to films neat polymer.

Jan 1, 2015

By Cang Daqiang, Li Yu, Liu Xiaoming, Zong Yanbin

"Utilization of high-quality heat in melting slag is a great challenge for iron and steel industry. In the paper, a new method is put forward to concurrently utilize heat and slag by converting the melting slag directly into high valued materials, slag glass-ceramic. A glassceramic with a higher basicity of 0.7 than traditional basicity of 0.45 was prepared from steelmaking slag in order to utilize more hot melting slag. Effects of Alz03 on its crystallization processes were researched by XRF, DTA, XRD and SEM. Results show that Alz03 in glassceramic would have great effected on its property. When the Alz03 content ranges within 12%-15%, glass-ceramics with basicity of0.7 could reach the best performances. The change of dominant phase in glass ceramics from akermanite and wollastonite to akermanite and gehlenite would significantly degrade its mechanical property. An increase of Al2O3 content leads to a rise of the viscosity and crystallization activation energy of the glass, while results in increasing sintering temperature and crystallization temperature of glass, which contributed to its fully crystallization and densification process.IntroductionSteel slag is a by-product under a process of converting iron to steel at above 1600°C, and 0.1-0.15 ton molten steel slag would be discharged for producing per ton of steel in the process. The discharged steel slag at 1600°C has heat of 68 kgce/t. In 2012, China's steel output reached 716 million tons, and produces about 100 million tons of steel slag and 68,000 tee of heat in it [1,2]. But at present, utilization of both slag and its heat at 1600°C is a great challenge for iron and steel industry.Dry granulation of melting steel slag by air and then recovering the heat of the hot air are a traditional technology which have not yet been put into practice for very low heat conductivity of the slag and low efficient of heat exchange among the different processes [3,4]. Therefore, a new method for high efficient utilization of both steel slag and its high temperature sensible heat is put forward [5,6], which is on-line reducing and extracting iron from molten steel slag and then directly preparing glass-ceramic by use of the residual molten slag."

Jan 1, 2014

By Satu Jyrkönen

A single-particle laminar-flow technique was used to study oxidation of four synthetic nickel mattes, which were screened into three size fractions, Experimental conditions were: reaction gas from N2 - 21 to 75 vol-% O2; gas preheating temperatures ranging from 500 to I 100'C. The four mattes were synthesized so that Ni/Cu ratios of I and 10 were obtained with high and low iron contents. Chemical analysis of the particles was used to determine the oxidation degree of the materials, and optical and scanning electron microscopy were used to detect their morphology, internal composition and structure. The best sulfur removal from the synthetic nickel mattes was achieved under the most oxidizing conditions with the finest size fraction. The matte with Ni/Cu = 1 and high iron content was found to be most reactive. The least reactive matte was with Ni/Cu = 10 and low iron content; the coarse fraction particles did not react at all under the conditions studied.

Jan 1, 1996