Search Documents

By M. Cavallini, G. Cannavale, P. P. Milella, A. Pescetelli, C. Lupi

Ni-Cd sealed and vented cells have been widely used in the last few years. The environmental hazard related to the heavy metals contained in Ni-Cd batteries is well known. Therefore, a number of scientific studies and commercial processes have been implemented in order to recycle them. Since spent batteries are a heterogeneous and complex material, any kind of recovery process needs some preliminary treatments. The proposed process described in this paper has been tested in laboratory and further developed in a pilot plant. It consists of a combination of mechanical and hydrometallurgical treatment steps, and is able to treat all type of Ni-Cd batteries. In particular, the mechanical treatments have to be done separately on vented and sealed cells, while the hydrometallurgical step is performed on a mixture of the two products obtained from mechanical steps. A fully automated dismantling line would allow the separate recovery of the plastic or metallic casing, terminals, KOH electrolyte, and electrodes to be further processed· for Ni and Cd recovery. The electrodes coming from dismantling line and sealed batteries are submitted separately to an original crushing and elutriation treatment to separate metallic and active paste in the first case and metallic, plastic and active paste in the second case. The hydrometallurgical treatment is carried out on active paste bearing product to produce Ni, Cd, and Fe comn1ercial salts through acidic leaching followed by a multi-step solvent extraction operation to obtain pure solutions.

Jan 1, 2000

By Wolfgang Baum

Case studies from epithermal gold-silver deposits in the western United States and in Latin America show that the routine use of process-related mineralogical studies has become an important tool for the reduction of development, capital and operating costs. Bypassing the mineralogical characteristics of epithermal gold-silver ores, as a result of fast-track development approaches, has resulted in multimillion dollar metal losses and/or in considerable modification costs of existing operations.

Jan 1, 1988

By Carl C. Nesbitt

A study was conducted to examine the treatment of metal-bearing effluents by precipitating the metals as sulfides and simultaneously collecting the particles by flotation. The precipitant was hydrogen sulfide gas which was introduced into a bench-scale column cell with air. The study included experiments of various flotation reagents and column configurations in treating solutions containing dissolved copper, lead, mercury, iron, zinc and cadmium. An acidic laboratory waste from a local copper operation was used to test the column with a solution containing several metals and arsenic. Precipitates were observed to form at the gas/liquid interface when the gas mixtures were rich in H2S. Copper, mercury, lead, and cadmium were precipitated from solution as sulfides to concentrations near detection limits. The flotation of these precipitates was enhanced with small amounts of S-7151 promoter from American Cyanamide Company and Dowfroth 1263 mixed with the feed. The recovery of the precipitates in this manner produced a smaller volume slurry which was easier to dewatering than a slurry produced by conventional precipitation techniques. The low pH and high oxidation-reduction potential in the cell from H2S addition was not conducive to form precipitates of iron, zinc or arsenic. However, these ions were precipitated as sulfides by raising the pH of the column discharge.

Jan 1, 1994

By Seyed Ahmad Jenabali-Jahromi

In this paper a meshless method called Finite Point Method (FPM) is developed to simulate the solidification process of continuously cast bloom steel in both primary and secondary cooling region. The method is based on the use of a weighted least-square interpolation procedure. A transverse slice of bloom as it moves with casting speed is considered as computational domain. The two dimensional heat transfer equation together with temperature dependent thermophysical properties is solved in the computational domain. The present work is verified in the mold region by the comparison of the surface temperature simulated by FPM and finite volume method (FVM) and also comparison of solidified shell thickness simulated by FPM and measured on a breakout bloom. For secondary cooling region the validation is done by comparison of the surface temperature simulated by FPM, FVM and thermovision measurements.

Jan 1, 2009

By H. Virtanen

Outokumpu copper refining operations have a long history of expansions and application of new technologies. Outokumpu is a name known around the world for technological excellence in the field of base metals, and part of the policy of operations is continuous investment and investigation in new technologies. The results of this hard work sometimes are immediate and sometimes take years. The work done during the last years at the Outokumpu Harjavalta Metals copper refinery, together with a sister technology group Outokumpu Wenmec, has started to bear fruit in terms of the following radical developments and advances that are and will be applied to assure Outokumpu's position as the technology leader and a low cost and safe producer. Some of the developments discussed include the new anode and cathode design, mechanised electrode handling, cell design incorporating features facilitating full automation, automated short circuit detection and removal, automated on line anode slime removal, and high efficiency and intensity refining.

Jan 1, 1999

By Sebastião Ribeiro, Leonardo Carneiro Sardinha, Alline Sardinha Cordeiro Morais, Carlos Maurício Fontes Vieira, Sergio Neves Monteiro

The glass tube of spent fluorescent lamps is contaminated with mercury, which might be a serious hazard in the case of conventional recycling by melting with other glasses. A possible solution could be its incorporation into a clay body to fabricate common fired ceramics such as bricks and tiles. The objective of this work is to characterize a type of fluorescent lamp glass waste to be incorporated into a clayey ceramic. The characterization was performed in terms of wettability tests to evaluate the interaction between the surface of the clayey ceramic and glass waste as a function of the firing temperature. The results showed that the contact angle decreased with increasing temperature, reaching a value of 79°, at a temperature of 1100°C, but not sufficient to completely wet the ceramic. However, compatible chemical composition and reduction of porosity by the flow of soft glass waste between the clay particles favor the consolidation of the ceramics structure above 900°C.

Jan 1, 2015

By Xiangwen Wang

Electrodeposition of lead metal from high purity brine electrolytes containing lead chloride (PbCI,) was conducted so as to assess the feasibility of electrowinning lead-metal directly from aqueous chloride electrolytes. Tests were performed at 65 and 80°C (338 and 353°K). Characteristic features of the deposits, on both lead and graphite substrates, were correlated to operating parameters associated with: electrolyte temperature, current density and total lead- concentration. Photomicrographs of these morphological features were obtained by use of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).

Jan 1, 1993

By R. Padilla

The reaction of chalcopyrite with gaseous sulfur has been investigated in the range 350-450 °C in order to transform this mineral into a more acid soluble copper sulfide and insoluble iron sulfide. The results of thermodynamic analysis of this system as well as the X-ray diffraction analysis of the reaction products showed that in the temperature range 350 400°C the sulfidation reaction proceeded without formation of intermediate copper-iron sulfides according to: The effects of temperature and time on the conversion of chalcopyrite were studied. Conversion of chalcopyrite reached about 80% very rapidly with increase in temperature up to about 400°C. The recovery of copper from the sulfidized samples was determined by leaching in oxygenated 1.2M H2S04, 2M NaCI solution. Copper recoveries over 90 % were obtained from samples sulfidized for 30 min at temperatures lower than 400°C.

Jan 1, 2001

By Felipe Daroch, Maria C. Ruiz, Rafael Padilla

Copper concentrates with high arsenic contents must be pretreated before conventional smelting to prevent environmental pollution with arsenic compounds. In this work, experimental results concerning the selective removal of arsenic and antimony from copper concentrates are presented. The process consists of an alkaline digestion using concentrated NaHS-NaOH solutions to transform the arsenic and antimony sulfides into soluble compounds. A water leaching follows the digestion to dissolve the arsenic and antimony, leaving clean copper sulfide solid residues. The laboratory scale tests were carried out using a copper–arsenic concentrate with 15.05% As and 1.42% Sb. The results showed that the most important digestion variables were temperature and concentrations of NaHS and NaOH. Over 97% of arsenic and 92% of antimony could be removed in 10 min of digestion using 8.9 M NaOH and 100% excess of NaHS at 80 °C. The subsequent water leaching was performed at 80°C for 20 min.

Jan 1, 2015

By Alexandre Monteiro

Alumina precursor powders can be precipitated from aqueous solutions, using hydrothermal decomposition of urea to deliver base homogeneously to the system. Primary particles agglomerate early in the process, generating a wide size distribution. The presence of a polymeric surfactant such as polyacrylate can suppress or delay agglomeration, reducing particle size and narrowing the size distribution. The stabilization of commercially available a-Alp03 powder with polyacrylate was studied, investigating the effects of polyacrylate molecular weight, ionic strength and temperature. The effect of aluminum concentration, polyacrylate molecular weight and urea concentration on the precipitation of alumina precursors in a sulfate- urea system in the presence of polyacrylate/polyacrylic acid was then studied. The hydrolysis kinetics were followed, and particle sizes were determined. Precipitates were further characterized using energy dispersive spectroscopy. The particle characteristics are discussed in terms of the process conditions.

Jan 1, 1994

By Cesar O. Gomez

A procedure has been developed for mounting at random particles of mineral samples to be characterized using image analysis. The procedure is based on the generation of a random distribution of sample particles in particles of a diluent material. and the embedding of this particle mixture in an epoxy resin without disturbing the initial distribution. Two materials with atomic number similar to that of the epoxy resin were successfully used as diluents: activated charcoal and graphite. The proportion of diluent material to be mixed with the sample to have a large number of mineral particles in the field of view while keeping the occurrence of touching particles at an acceptable level was determined empirically. The randomization achieved with the procedure developed in this work was tested using as samples known mixtures of silica and pyrite particles of the same sieve class. The agreement obtained between the mass ratio of minerals used in the preparation of a particular specimen and that resulting from image analysis demonstrates that the procedure developed is successful in producing a specimen where the embedded particles are randomly distributed.

Jan 1, 1988

By Elli Miettinen

In Copper Flash Smelting operation disturbances may lead into dust build-up in the gas train and off-gas handling system causing reduced heat recovery efficiency and process availability. Flue dust of a Copper Flash Smelting process heat recovery boiler has been characterized and its thermal conductivity and diffusivity have been determined. Dust accretions consist of several layers possessing varying particle sizes, densities, and thermal properties, with the binding phase usually being sulphate. All the dusts can be regarded as effective thermal insulators with thermal conductivity values of less than 2 W/mK and thermal diffusivity values of less than 0.005 cm2/s. Porosity can be regarded as a fairly good indicator of the thermal transport efficiency of these types of materials, but the material microstructure must also be considered. The results can be used in the dimensioning of metallurgical heat recovery boilers and they also provide accurate input data for process models.

Jan 1, 2009

By Mao Chen, Baojun Zhao, Xiangfeng Cheng, Zhixiang Cui, Leonel Contreras, Anh Nguyen

Smelting is an important process in copper production to produce matte and slag.The slag,containing about 1–12% Cu can be further processed to recover the copper contaminated, but recycle of the slag concentrate reduces overall productivity and efficiency of the operation. The best solution is to minimize the copper loss to the slag. The entrained matte droplets in copper smelting slag may originate from a few sources. The present study aims to investigate possible copper matte loss mechanisms by visualization of room temperature experiments and high-temperature examination. It is believed that the gas bubbles from the matte phase disperse the matte droplets into the slag causing entrained matte in slag. Analyses of quenched slags from industrial operation and laboratory experiments confirmed that matte droplets in the slag are extensively associated with the gas bubbles. Water model is used to simulate the procedure and the bubble behaviors at the liquid-liquid interface are observed experimentally with a high-speed camera.

Mar 1, 2017

By Chetan P. Malhotra

This paper describes an online control system and simulation environment for reheating furnaces. The system can be configured for implementing manual control as well as automatic control using either look-up tables or online model predictions. The simulator is also used for offline generation of optimized normal operation and delay setpoints for look-up tables and generating ideal heating curves for model-based control. Finally, it is employed to compare the performance of the above control strategies over a typical period of operation of a pusher-type reheating furnace. Keywords: Reheating furnace, control strategy, model-based control

Jan 1, 2003

By Steven R. Izatt

IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc. (IBC) has developed a mercury selective product, which can be used by sulfuric acid producers as either a polisher, or as the primary technology for mercury removal from sulfuric acid. The Molecular Recognition Technology (MRT) separations material selectively binds Hg2+, and to a lesser extent Hg+, out of concentrated sulfuric acid. Mercury output levels of less than 0.1 ppm can be attained by the MRT system. Pilot plant tests have been successfully conducted at base metal smelting operations. A large-scale commercial plant is due for commissioning in 2003. Results from these projects will be discussed.

Jan 1, 2003

By Michael F. Kitto

The production of sulphuric acid at base metals smelters is predominantly an involuntary activity and now comprises approximately 17% of all-forms sulphur supply in world terms. The majority of elemental sulphur is also produced involuntarily in response to environmental regulations regarding emissions from hydrocarbon processing plants. The paper examines the points of similarity and difference in the sulphur and smelter acid markets, and reviews their interactions. The reasons for the merchant acid market collapse of 1993 are analyzed, and the prospects of a recurrence are considered.

Jan 1, 1996

By Hani Henein, J. Barry Wiskel

"The easy accessibility and power of the PC, as well as the education of our engineering students in the use of these tools, are compelling reasons for developing computer aided instructional (CAI) tools. There are a wide range of areas in the engineering curriculum where students must learn the steps and the process of applying judgement in problem solving. In the typical course instruction, · an instructor introduces theory to students; the application of the theory to solving problems is often demonstrated in the abstract. Students therefore spend a significant amount of time learning how to apply the theory to problem solving. Additional time and effort must then be spent to get students to the point of learning concepts and integrating this knowledge. A number of computer aided packages have therefore been developed for use in several courses in the materials science and engineering curriculum that encompass both calculational and instructional capabilities. This paper presents an overview of some of these packages which include the solution of a non-linear equation, the instruction of binary diffusion couples, an introduction of crystallography, an introduction to heat transfer and the solution of thermodynamic stability diagrams. The context in which these CAI Tutorials were developed and are being used will be discussed. The pitfalls in the development of these packages will also be discussed. The use of the tutorials has important implications on the expectations from an engineering education of both instructor and student.IntroductionTraditionally, it is quite routine to teach engineering students how to use a computer (the PC today for undergraduates) as a tool in performing engineering calculations or in simulating a process or a unit operation. This often takes the form of one course in computer programming, whether it is Fortran, Visual basic or a spreadsheet, and another course in numerical computation. However, the materials and electronic revolution have brought about considerable advances in computer power and speed, and accessibility. Today, the manipulation of digital images, movies, and speech are commonplace on a desktop PC.' Many mathematical models that were executed only on workstations can now be readily handled on a PC. Concurrently, more of our students own a PC even if their curriculum does not require them to purchase one. Today, virtually every university student has been introduced to the PC in either their elementary or high school education. Hence, the increased capabilities and accessibility of the PC and the familiarity of students with this tool make it compelling to explore its use as an educational tool for our engineering students. This is not a traditional role of a computer in our engineering curriculum."

Jan 1, 2000

By Alex Probst

With low metal prices and increasing value placed on plant water and tailings disposal areas, it is becoming essential to maximize the efficiency of solid-liquid separation processes. Since its inception over 25 years ago, the use of flocculants has grown exponentially. While flocculants play a crucial role in the sedimentation process, they are also a major operating cost. Recent innovations are revolutionizing the industry once again. New thickener designs are doubling thickener-loading rates while reducing flocculant consumption. The feedwell, as the heart of the thickener, is undergoing many significant metamorphoses. With CFD and other advanced computational analysis, feedwell technology is being examined more thoroughly than ever before, The result is that the thickener previously thought of, as a "Black Box" is now being mapped and controlled with state-of-the-art technology. This paper will examine recent design improvements in all aspects of thickeners in order to project the look of the thickener of tomorrow.

Jan 1, 1999

By Keizo Uematsu, Satoshi Tanaka, Nozomu Uchida, Yutaka Saito

"Effect of moisture content must be fully understood for controlling the granule compaction of ceramics. It changes the mechanical behavior of spray-dried granules applied for compaction process, and governs the structure and properties of .ceramics. To understand the time-dependent change in processing, the kinetics was examined for change of moisture content for granules placed in a die and the pressed compacts also. The results were explained in terms of apparent moisture diffusion coefficients. They varied non-linearly with the PVA content in the granules. The results were explained through the non-uniform PVA distribution in the granules.IntroductionMoisture must be controlled in compaction process to produce the green compacts having uniform structure. It affects glass transition temperature of binder and thus the deformation behavior of powder granules under an applied stress. Several studies [1-7] have clarified the effect of moisture content on the compaction behavior of granules and the structure of resultant compacts for both die pressing and cold isostatic pressing (CIP) of pre-formed compacts. In these studies, the moisture contents in the system were equilibrated with the humidity in the atmosphere before compaction. In practice, however, the moisture content in the system may vary with time if the relative humidity of surrounding atmosphere is different from what the granules were equilibrated previously. This is very likely case in real production processes. However, the kinetics of moisture change in the granules as well as in the pre-formed powder compacts have not been well studied. For controlling the microstructure in a system, it is necessary to fully understand the kinetics of moisture change and its relevance to packing structure of powders."

Jan 1, 2000

By Manuel Zamalloa

The outstanding metallurgical performance of the Noranda continuous converter (NCv) in operation since November 1997 has allowed the company to meet production and environmental targets. This achievement positions this new technology as a strong alternative continuous converting technology for copper production. Knowledge of slag chemistry has been important in this respect. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of key parameters including temperature, oxygen potential, slag composition and levels of copper oxide in slag on the conditions leading to magnetite precipitation, as well as on the conditions affecting the liquidus ranges of NCv slag. The above variables are evaluated using industrial data and thermodynamic predictions. Practical implications of customizing operational fluxing procedures to determine optimum operating windows are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1999