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By Robert W. Bartlett

"Economic and other factors, mostly outside of metallurgy, that strongly influence applied research, development and especially successful commercial adoption of new processes for producing primary metals and other commodity materials are reviewed. These factors, which can be both positive and negative in their influence, are often too lightly regarded in the research planning stage. They include continuing imperatives that have long influenced new process development as well as more recent trends. Both are discussed. Nearly all new materials eventually become commodities--products made to standard specifications with no producer control over price. Success requires being a low cost producer on a world wide basis. Composites and other complex material assemblages are unlikely to escape this fate as they mature.INTRODUCTIONThe adoption of new processes, beginning with research and development, for primary metals and other commodity materials is particularly difficult because each new process must supplant an existing process that is already being used commercially. There are many requirements besides technical innovation and cost superiority that must be met by the new process. Consequently, few innovations make it all the way from the research laboratory to commercial success.This paper discusses some of the factors that influence success in developing new processes for primary metals and commodity materials, based on the authors experience as a research metallurgist and industrial research manager. It begins with some of the factors that are always present and constrain successful process research and development, and proceeds to current trends that are expected to continue long enough to influence processes in the year 2000. Many of these trends are contradictory in their effect on new process development, and the future remains uncertain.The prevailing importance of these trends will vary with the material, process concept and other factors intrinsic to each case. Nevertheless, an awareness of these influences can help to avoid some of the R&D pitfalls and dead ends. Such awareness is deemed to be a necessary condition to avoid failure when commercial adoption of a new process is the goal."

Jan 1, 1988

By M. W. Wadsley

Despite the convenient subdivision of extractive metallurgy into hydro- and pyro- divisions, many flowsheets contain both types of process. When complex materials are used as feed, combinations of hydro- and pyro-metallurgical processes are even more common. Hydrometallurgy is used to treat many by-products and waste-products. (Bio-metallurgical processes may be considered to be a sub-set of hydro-metallurgical processes.) Combinations of the different processes in the Australian metallurgical industry are described. Selected international examples demonstrate that the use of combked processes is not a unique. Antipodean phenomenon. The motives for selection of combined pyre- and hydro-metallurgical processes in a flowsheet are examined.

Jan 1, 1994

By M. -L. Metsärinta, J. Nyberg, A. Roine

The Kokkola roasting plant uses more than 20 different zinc concentrates every year. During recent years there has been an increase in the variation in concentrate quality; in particular, the amount of fine-grained and low-grade concentrates has increased. Therefore, a great deal of development work has been carried out to improve the operational flexibility, online availability, production capacity and calcine quality of the roasting plant. This work consisted of a heat and material balance model of the roasting based on HSC Chemistry software, a new water admixture system for the concentrate feed, a new oxygen feed system for the process air line, improved cooling of the furnace and boiler and improved operational practices, dust removal and concentrate mixing. These new process control tools and other improvements, as well as some test results, will be described in this paper. The oxygen feed may be used to improve production capacity and to decrease the sulfide content of the calcine. The water feed may be used with fine concentrates to decrease both dust carry-over and the temperature in the top part of the furnace. Improved cooling of the furnace and boiler helps to increase production capacity.

Jan 1, 2000

By Hiroshi Nakajima, Kotobu Nagai, Toshihiro Hanamura

"Low carbon ferritic steel bars with ultra-fine grain structure was developed through a warm rolling for the first time by the present authors. They show better low temperature toughness than conventionally hot-rolled plates. Hence, the brittle fracture surfaces in Charpy tests were examined in terms of the effective grain size of fracture, compared with those of conventional QT steels. The ductile-to-brittle transition temperatures were in good accordance with those for the QT steels if referred to the effective grain size of fracture: · However, the size was a few times that of the ferrite grain. This means the grain refining is not yet fully utilized from the viewpoint of low temperature toughness. The anisotropy of· the impact properties and the annealing effect of highly dislocated structure on the toughness are also discussed in the present paper.IntroductionFor structural materials, both high strength and good toughness are required. Well-known approaches for obtaining better toughness for steels are as follows:1) Grain refining2) Addition of Ni3) Thin plate effect by cracking parallel to the rolling direction prior to crack propagation4) Contribution of metastable austenite.Among them, only the grain refining can raise the strength and improve the toughness. And it is well known that the finer the ferrite grain size, the lower the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature. For example, in the case of 0.11 carbon steel, the transition temperature decreases linearly to in d 1/2 [1 ]. However, these have been told in the regime of coarse grain size that is larger than 10 µm in diameter. There ~as .been no study dealing with the low temperature toughness in the regime of ultra-fine grain size with a diameter in the order of 1 µm."

Jan 1, 2000

By Carla Lupi, Alessandro Pescetelli

"Spent lead battery recycling still shows few weak points in the achievement of a 100% recycling of different waste matters and by- products arising from the recycling process. Some of said problems are dealing with aqueous streams outgoing the recycling plant, and more particularly, a) the waste waters discarded from the breaking and separation unit, b) purification of the spent electrolyte drained from waste batteries and upgrade to a quality compatible with full re-use by the batteries’ manufacturers, c) purification of the mother liquors discarded in the sodium sulfate crystallization process so to produce a salt of commercial grade. All of the above listed problems have been satisfactorily overcome applying an electrochemical process that, through different process conditions and parameters, is able to remove the harmful impurities that hinder the successful commercialization of such by products, or, at least, that can avoid heavy and expensive treatment plant and operation.IntroductionAlmost 100% of commercial lead and lead alloys produced by secondary lead plants is recycled to the new lead accumulators manufacture. The other by-products and residues produced through the lead recycling process may be classified into two groups:a) matters reusable in the new accumulators production processb) matters produced as a result of various reagents and additives used in the recycling process, to be sold to different market sectorsQuality and saleability of by-products are significant points for the economics of the secondary lead plant operation, because, if said by-products are not saleable, they are just wastes, so offsetting potential revenues, and, at the same time, adding a heavy burden to operating cost, like disposal cost [1]. When looking at a typical, modern lead scrap batteries recovery cycle, it is quite evident that we are still rather far from dealing with a waste-less technology (fig.1).The group a) includes 3 by-products produced through the breaking process: among those matters the polypropylene only usually reaches a standard quality suitable for sale to lead manufacturing sector or to other sectors as well. The other two by-products, electrolyte and separators, do not still reach, through a viable and effective regeneration process, a quality standard sufficient for their re-use in the lead batteries sector ."

Jan 1, 2008

By Y. Takasaki

For zinc hydrometallurgical extraction, reducing the electric power consumption of the electrowinning process is an important issue for energy savings. At the Zinc & Lead 2000 symposium, the authors suggested that by using the Pb-0.5%Ag-0.6%Ca alloy, the electrolysis energy can be decreased compared to the conventional Pb-0.9%Ag alloy. In this study, the corrosion behaviors of the Pb-Ag-Ca electrode in a sulfuric-acid electrolyte were investigated. Based on the results Or me Pb-0.5%Ag-0.6%Ca anode after 20 days of electrolysis, the bath voltage and the quantity of anode slime decreased compared to the Pb-I%Ag anode. Subsequently, beta-PbO2 on the electrode surface was detected by XRD and its peaks were sharper than the Pb-1 %Ag anode. Moreover, a dense beta-PbO2 layer on the 0.6%Ca a anode surface was observed. Therefore, it was suggested that the dense beta-PbO2 layer on the anode surface is one of the factors that leads to a lower bath voltage and decreasing quantity of anode slime.

Jan 1, 2003

By David Rees

Tomago Aluminium, a 400,OO tonnes per annum primary aluminium smelter in Australia, has installed Ozone for biological control of its process water. The system was designed in Australia by Ionics Watertec Engineering, whilst ANCO Australia monitors the water quality and provides technical support for the project. The motivation was initially to reduce operating costs, however investigations indicated that there were substantial environmental benefits to be achieved by the elimination of a part, or all of, the chemicals being used to control the system. Also the existing chemicals appeared to be losing their ability to control biological growth in the system, in particular, the legionella bacteria. Ozone water treatment commenced in January 1998 and after a short transition period has operated without chemical addition since. There appears to be no doubt that the biological control is effective, the clarity and purity of the water has improved and initial testing indicates that the corrosion control rate is acceptable, although some chemical corrosion control may be introduced after further testing around the total circuit to guarantee protection

Jan 1, 1999

By H. Kandemir

An experimental study of the bacterial oxidation of naturally occurring high-purity sulphide minerals (FeS2, Fe1-xS, Cu5FeS4, ZnS) is presented using a mesophilic strain of T. ferrooxidans. As well as metal analyses and solution pH, partitioning of sulphide sulphur into elemental sulphur and sulphate has been monitored as a function of leach time. Partially oxidized sulphide substrates have been characterized, at regular time intervals, by X-ray diffraction methods and extracellular organic compounds reporting into leach solution .have been identified by thin layer -chromatography.

Jan 1, 1985

By Tan Pengfu

By using computer-aided techniques of equilibrium calculations for multicomponent and multiphase systems, a computer model has been developed to simulate QSL, KIVCET and Outokumpu flash lead smelting processes. A mathematical description is studied using two zones or three zones, namely smelting zone and slag reduction zone for QSL furnace, or offtake shaft zone, smelting shaft zone and electric furnace zone for KIVCET furnace. The amount of each component in lead, slag and gaseous phases under equilibrium is calculated by using the data of free energies of formation and activity coefficients. The predictions by the present computer model are compared with the known data from QSL-Plant at Korea Zinc Co. in Korea, KIVCET-Plant at Nuova Samim Co. in Italy and Outokumpu Co. in Finland. The agreements between the computer predictions and the known data are excellent, so that the present computer model can be used to monitor and optimize the actual industrial operations of direct lead smelting.

Jan 1, 1998

By Blas Melissari, Stavros A. Argyropoulos

"In this paper a computational approach was employed to estimate the melting of solid spheres immersed in different liquid metals and under different convective conditions. The spheres are made from the same material as the liquid metal. The SIMPLER algorithm was implemented using a three-dimensional system in Cartesian co-ordinates. Experimental validation of the dimensionless correlation was carried out in two fluids with vastly different Prandtl numbers. The dimensionless heat transfer coefficient (Nusselt number) is obtained as a function. of the Reynolds and Prandtl number.IntroductionThere is a paucity of dimensionless convective heat transfer correlations applicable to fluids like liquid metals. The existing correlations cover single Prandtl number metals [l] or at most two different Prandtl number metals [2]. A knowledge of heat transfer rates from particles at high flux levels has become increasingly important to the design of energy transfer systems. Melting of solid particles has been studied extensively as it relates to many engineering and environmental applications, such as materials processing, space applications, water resource and energy conversion. When objects are immersed in a fluid with a temperature higher than their melting point, they melt and produce molten material that then mixes with the surrounding fluid. These objects experience not only size variation but also changes in their shape. This observation is more pronounced when the melting occurs in a forced convective flow.Yuge performed pioneering experimental work on the heat transfer from a sphere to air under mixed convection [3]. He suggested procedures for predicting the Nusselt number. Hieber et al [4] studied the spherical system analytically, but their study was limited to flow with small Reynolds numbers. Many researchers studied the melting dynamics of ice spheres in water at different convective regimes. Aziz et al [5] and Hao et al [6] performed measurements of the heat transfer coefficient in the water system by measuring the melting time of ice spheres in forced convection. Hao et al [7] performed visualization studies of ice spheres melting in water under mixed convection regime. All of this groundbreaking work, however, did not involve the use of liquid metals"

Jan 1, 2004

Today’s world relies upon advanced green technologies that are made of critical elements with unique properties. Examples include rare earth elements (REEs) that are critical in the manufacturing of wind turbines and electric/hybrid vehicle batteries, key components of a greener future that face supply uncertainty and near zero recycling. To tackle their supply challenges, activities have begun for urban mining from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) that contain considerable amount of REEs, but their current level of recycling is less than 1%. Current recycling practices use either pyrometallurgy, which is energy intensive, or hydrometallurgy that utilizes large volumes of acids and solvents and generates large volumes of hazardous waste. In this study, we developed a novel and sustainable process to recycle REEs from WEEE, NiMH batteries in particular. The developed process relies on supercritical fluid extraction (SCFE) utilizing CO2 as the solvent, which is abundant, safe, cost effective, and inert. The effect of seven operating parameters, namely temperature, pressure, residence time, sample to chelating agent ratio, agitation rate, complex formulation, and methanol addition on REE extraction efficiency was investigated, and optimum operating conditions were determined. This work is the first to utilize a very efficient and safe process that runs at low temperature to extract metals from postconsumer products with minimum hazardous waste generation, while offering about 90% leaching efficiency for REEs. We expect our process to find widespread applicability in urban mining of REEs using green chemistry.

By Hyun Soo Kim, Joon Soo Kim, Myong Jun Kim, Jyothi Rajesh Kumar, Jin-Young Lee

Rare earth materials have an ever growing variety of applications in the modern and hitech technology. They apply to many an industry with crucial materials and they provide numerous a customers with benefits. Rare earth materials utilization increasing day-by-day in the worldwide, at the same time the resources is very limited in many countries like Korea. The present general article divided four sorts such as 1) mineral processing of Korean ore deals the gravity, magnetic separation and froth flotation, 2) decomposition and leaching of concentrates included sodium hydroxide fritting, sodium hydroxide hot digestion, hydrochloric acid leaching, 3) separation and purification of rare earth elements in mixed rare earth chloride solution consists reduction and oxidation method, solvent extraction, 4) preparation of rare earth oxide compound from purified elemental rare earth chloride solution having oxalate salt precipitation by reaction crystallization. The last part consists of a summary of the present study.

Jan 1, 2015

By Paykan Safe

Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modeling provides a powerful tool to assist with the design of ventilation and fume control systems in smelters and other high temperature metallurgical facilities. For this paper, this tool has been used to analyze the off-gas flow patterns exiting the mouth of a Peirce-Smith converter into a water-cooled hood and drop out box. The effects of various process and physical plant design parameters on process gas and fume capture and potential build up on the converter hoods was examined, and the optimum design and operating parameters were determined.

Jan 1, 2000

By O. G. Rivera, R. D. Moser, P. G. Allison, W. R. Whittington, P. Rivera-Soto, Z. McClelland, D. Francis

This research examined the evolving microstructure of quasi-static and dynamically loaded fully annealed metastable 301 austenitic stainless steel (SS). Experiments were performed to an interrupted strain value of 20% and to failure using a tension Kolsky bar (1000/s) and an electromechanical load frame (0.001/s). Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) identified the microstructural evolution from the as-received condition to the 20% strain level for the high and low rate interrupted samples. This material achieved over 60% elongation to failure with increasing strength as strain rate increased, as expected. Fractography analysis using SEM showed particles in the microstructure and a ductile failure mode. The 301 SS exhibited a greater amount of phase transformation from parent austenite to -martensite at the dynamic strain rate when compared to the quasi-static strain rate during the interrupted experiments. This result is indicative of the increased propensity for austenite to -martensite phase transformations at the high strain rate.

Jan 1, 2016

By Thomas Schuman, Jaan Kers, Lucas N. W. Damoah, Xiangjun Zuo, Lifeng Zhang

"Rapid technological innovation has propelled the use of electronic equipment leading to the generation of more and more waste electrical and electronic equipments (WEEE). Printed wiring board (PWB) is a component made of one or more layers of insulating material with electrical conductors. To investigate an environmentally friendly process to recycle PWBs, PWB samples with and without additives were pyrolyzed. Liquid, gas and solid products were achieved with different conversion fraction. Analysis of the exhaust gases from the experiments using GC-MS and MS showed that without CaCO3 additives poisonous gases such as C6H6 and HBr were produced which were adequately controlled if CaCO3 was added.IntroductionPyrolysis is one of the best methods for treating complex mixtures of waste polymers and to recover the material and energy content. The process consists of thermal decomposition at moderate temperatures in total absence or small amount of oxygen in which the structures of polymers break down into smaller intermediate products "". The decomposition temperature of a substance is the temperature at which the substance breaks up into smaller substances or into its constituent atoms 2). Thermal treatment of PWBs were reported using DC Arc Plasma furnace 3), and fixed bed reactor 4). One drawback in dealing with thermal treatment of PWB scraps is the likely production of super-toxic halogenated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans from the bromine containing structures. Pyrolysis of organic materials contained in waste PWBs leads to the formation of gases, oils, and chars which can be used as chemical feedstock or fuels ""'. Dehalogenation of the pyrolysis product of electronic scraps is essential to make it commercially acceptable. It would be obviously the most advantageous solution as pyrolysis and dehalogenation are carried out simultaneously. Reported pyrolysis investigations are at experimental stage and have been carried out in vacuum, molten salt, fluidized bed, rotary kiln, entrained, stationary, and moving bed reactors 7). Comparing to the incineration and combustion of PWBs, the pyrolysis process has several characteristics: 8'"">) 1). Converting the organic solid substance into fuel gas, fuel oil and carbon-black as storage energy; 2) Emitting toxic substances such as sulfur, bromine and heavy metals in wastes; and 3) Keeping metals from being oxidized. Although many researches into the pyrolysis of PWB wastes have been reported, most of the works have been carried out using analytical pyrolysis techniques or very small batch reactors ""~'5). Also, most of the works for the pyrolysis of PWBs haves concentrated on the composition of the organic products, particularly the brominated organics. The current study is to investigate the pyrolysis of PWB powders in a small TG-DTA scale and a 50-gram tube furnace scale."

Jan 1, 2011

By Timothy W. Skszek, Adrian S. Sabau, Hebi Yin, Xiaoping Niu

The microstructure evolution during solution treatment plays an important role in mechanical properties of heat-treated aluminum alloys. In this paper, models were reviewed that can predict the microstructure evolution during the solutionizing process of the aging heat treatment of aluminum alloys. The dissolution ofMg2Si particles has been modeled as a diffusion process of Mg in the a-Al matrix. The evolution of volumetric fraction of fragmented silicon as a function of time and temperature was also considered. The growth and coarsening of silicon particles during the heat treatment was considered. It was found that constitutive equations and required property data for most of the phenomena that need to be considered are available. Several model parameters that need to be obtained from material characterization were identified. Pending the availability of these model parameters, this comprehensive model can be used to describe the microstructure evolution of aluminum alloys in order to optimize the solutionizing heat treatment for energy savings.

Jan 1, 2013

By H. Bernier

The Noranda Inc., CCR Division, copper refinery located in Montreal-East, Québec, Canada, has expanded over the years to reach a capacity of 410,000 metric tons of cathode production per year. The expansion process resulted in nine, parallel, 200 m. long bays each equipped with its overhead cranes and manually operated washing machines. Anode scrap washing and piling was done manually. The mechanization of the tank house involved the elimination of 18 cells at one end of each of the bays in order to install transfer conveyors where anode scrap and cathode loads are deposited by the bay cranes. The cathode loads are brought by new transverse cranes to new machines where cathodes are washed, piled in predetermined bundle weights, check weighed, strapped then shipped in trucks or railroad cars. Suspension bars are automatically removed, stacked in magazines and sent back to the starting sheet machines. Anode scrap loads are brought to machines located near the anode furnaces where they are washed and piled in bundles for easy charging. The mechanization has eliminated numerous hazardous jobs and has realized a reduction of 0.2 man-hours/ton. After these modifications, the refinery production capacity now stands at 370,000 metric tons per year.

Jan 1, 1987

By Raj P. Singh

Two design-of-experiments studies were carried out to investigate the leaching of technical grade molybdenum tri-oxide (TGM) in the presence of hydrochloric acid and the mother liquor of ammonium di-molybdate crystallization used as an ammonia source. Results indicated that leaching of TGM in HCl is possible only when used at about 1N concentration. In high concentrations of HCl, technical grade MoO3 had very high solubility (7.5 to 40 g/L Mo). The most suitable conditions for HCl leaching of TGM were obtained at a slightly elevated temperature of 80°C. Using about 1N HCl at 80°C, potassium in the leached solids (TGM) decreased to about 110 ppm, a value typically obtained in TGM leached in HNO3 - NH4NO3media (3.5 - 4.0 moles /L HNO3 + 0.5 ? 1.0 moles/L NH4NO3). Mo losses under these conditions were 0.8-0.9 g/L Mo. The HCl-leach method, presented here-in, has a significant advantage in chemical cost and environmental benefits over HNO3 ? NH4NO3 purification method.

Jan 1, 2006

By Yuuki Yoshida

Electrolytic manganese dioxide, EMD, is the positive electrode material of primary batteries and the raw material of LMC used as the positive mass of lithium ion batteries and is currently produced by anodic deposition on and harvesting from a titanium anode in acidic manganese sulfate solutions prepared by dissolving high purity of manganese sulfate into sulfuric acid solutions. This paper presents an alternative method of EMD production using a novel anode, Mn2O3 coated titanium, at lower operating temperature than the current process to explore a possibility of manganese recovery from zinc electrowinning solutions. The Mn2O3/ Ti anode prepared by thermal decomposition of a precursor solution containing Mn (II) showed the anodic deposition of MnO2 by constant current electrolysis and the current efficiency was 95% in maximum, while the current efficiency and the crystallographic structure of deposited MnO2 depended on the current density, the electrolysis time, the bath temperature, and the concentration of Mn(II). The deposited MnO2 was successfully harvested from the anode and the recovery rate was 98%.

By R. T. Hernández, I. Hilerio, A. Altamirano, M. A. Barrón

"The principal objective for finishing surfaces is to protect and/or to decorate them. This can be achieved by adding or removing material from the work surface. The addition of aggregated material is called coating or recovering. In this work, mecano-chemical techniques are investigated for surface finishing. For these techniques, barreling or polishing by the friction method will be used. These are the cleaning or finishing processes most used for great volumes of small pieces. These methods improve the surface finishing by eliminating burrs, sharp pointed, tool marks and crusts of casting. They are used to clean metallic pieces, ceramics and polymeric materials. The process is based on rubbing or friction by abrasives. The pieces are arranged in the barrel with an abrasive and an additive (water or chemical additive). The machine produces a rotating movement on the pieces. When the abrasive passes against the surfaces of the pieces, it produces an action of rubbing and impact that cleans the surfaces. The rubbing action is developed when the upper layer of the charge slides to the lower extreme when the barrel rotates. The barrel can be hexagonal or octagonal to facilitate the sliding of the charge. The barrels can be between 15 to 120 cm in length and they can have almost any diameter and velocity of rotation. There are several types of barrel: individual, multiples, and multiple compartments. The barrels are rotated using a wheel spindle or rolling pins, that the can ride horizontally or be tilted to produce an additional movement of the charge.IntroductionShot penning is a cold method in which compressive effects are induced on an exposed surface of a metallic piece, by the impact of a rain of shots directly on the surface of the metal, at great speed under controlled conditions. This differs from cleaning with the help of air, because even when shot penning cleans the surface of the metal, this function is incidental. The main purpose of shot penning is to increase the resistance of the piece to fatigue. The process has other applications: raises the tensile strength and decrease corrosion fracture."

Jan 1, 2012