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By A. V. Tarasov

Emission of sulfur-containing gases causes most adverse impact on the natural environment in the process of nonferrous metals production. Under the conditions of Arctic regions, in particular in the region of the Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Complex (Russia), this problem requires a special approach taking into account potential economic and socioeconomic consequences. By reducing the iron sulfide content of flotation concentrates by using new flotation reagents inhibiting pyrrhotite flotation and by applying advanced process flowsheets for flotation it is possible to increase the nonferrous metals content of flotation concentrates by 5% or more along with a corresponding reduction in SO2 formation during their subsequent pyrometallurgical processing. The ways used to resolve the environmental problems in the Norilsk region in the process of nickel and copper production, are based on the improvement of methods for elemental sulfur recovery from metallurgical off-gas by non-conventional techniques, the sulfur recovery from metallurgical gases by production of liquid sulfur dioxide and the technology for pyrometallurgical treatment of sulfide concentrates without SO2 formation. Another opportunity is the development and commercial introduction of hydrometallurgical technologies for treating copper-nickel sulfide ores.

Jan 1, 2006

By J. Brent Hiskey

Carefully prepared gold-bearing arsenopyrite samples from different geographical locations were leached in alkaline cyanide solutions using an electro-dissolution technique. Special precautions were taken to utilize monosized and thoroughly characterized samples. The rates of iron, arsenic, gold and silver dissolution were measured as a function of temperature under controlled conditions in sodium cyanide media.

Jan 1, 1989

By Bora Derin

Optimization of slag composition has great importance on effective and clean metal production technologies. Reddy-Blander (RB) model, a priori, is very useful tool for prediction of impurity capacities of industrial slags. In this study, sulfide capacities (Cs) of 19 lead smelter slags indicated in the literature were calculated and effects of Cs values on sulfur content of lead bullions were discussed.

Jan 1, 2006

By Gary Kordosky

Equilibrium modifiers, first introduced into copper solvent extraction reagents in the late 1960?s, are widely used. The properties of various equilibrium modifiers with respect to copper extraction, selectivity, reagent stability and entrainment are discussed and some conclusions are drawn relating the structure of the modifier to the properties of the modifier. A new highly selective, low viscosity modifier is also introduced.

Jan 1, 2003

By P. R. Bruggink

"A quantitative tool has been developed to assess the impact of changes in recycling rates on the environmental impact of aluminum supply. It has been applied to the USA to forecast sources of aluminum scrap and to examine the impact of an increase in Old Scrap recovery on the USA supply system and the subsequent effect on the Life Cycle Impact of aluminum supply. The reported data for primary, secondary and import/export supply and product shipments for aluminum in the USA show a fairly good balance between supply and demand on average over the years. Therefore, it is reasonable to use the data, along with published estimates of average product lives, recycling rates and recoveries to draw conclusions about future aluminum scrap generation· and recovery. The Life Cycle Impacts of increasing post-consumer recovery rates to recover an additional 450,000 MT/yr (1 billion lb/yr) has been estimated using the model.The spreadsheet model upon which this work was based was developed in U.S. Customary units. Converting the figures to Metric units would have required converting the entire model and rebuilding the figures. I have chosen to leave the figures in U.S. Customary units. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

Jan 1, 2000

By Cameron Harris

With the consolidation of the copper industry in the second half of the 20th century resulting in fewer plants treating ever increasing quantities and qualities of feed, the enormous flexibility of the Noranda Process gives it significant advantages over many competing technologies for the production of matte. Toll smelting, recycling, and secondaries treatment will become the cornerstone of profitable operations for all but the lucky few who have large captive mines associated with the smelter. Consequently, the ability to respond to changing market conditions without significant metallurgical or operational upsets will be of considerable commercial advantage. The inherent stability of this bath-smelting process leads to tight matte grade control, while the bath turbulence leads to rapid consumption of feeds with widely varying physical characteristics. Low capital and operating costs combined with a layout suitable for retrofit into existing converter aisles makes it a sensible choice for parts of the world still experiencing the aforementioned consolidation, which is essentially complete in fully developed economies such as the United States of America and the European Union. This paper will discuss features of the Noranda process compared with other technologies and its place in the future global copper production industry, which is set to become increasingly competitive and aggressive.

Jan 1, 2002

By Arvind Thekdi, Cynthia Belt2

"Waste heat from industrial operations in metals industry represents 20% to 50% of the total energy used in most manufacturing plants. Reduction and recovery of waste heat offers the most attractive and cost effective method of reducing energy intensity for an industrial plant to meet corporate energy saving goals. It is possible to reduce or recover 30% to 60% of the available waste heat by using conventional and readily available technologies. Projects to reduce or recovery waste heat may offer less than 3 years payback to as short as a few months. This paper presents information on most commonly used methods for waste heat reduction and recovery in the metals industry operations. It describes the methods and use of analysis tools that would allow a user to estimate energy savings, CO2 or GHG reduction potential, and economic benefit and includes appropriate case histories.Waste Heat SourcesSources of waste heat abound with the metals industry. While the overall quantity of energy is high, the sources are distributed throughout a plant. The largest source within the metals industry is within furnace exhaust / flue gases. This includes the high temperature gases from burners in process heating such melting, calcining, and sintering operations. It also includes lower temperature gases from heat treat, dryers, and heaters. Lower temperatures are also found after post processed hot gases. This could include heat left after heat exchangers, regenerative systems, thermal oxidizers, and emission control systems. Other hot gases include air used in direct and indirect cooling.While waste heat in form of exhaust gases is readily recognized, waste heat can also be found within liquids and solids. Waste heat within liquids includes things such as cooling water, heated wash water, and blow down water. Solids can be hot product at discharge after processing or reactions are complete. Indeed, not only is energy wasted in the hot metal that slowly air-cools, but additional energy may be used in providing air or water-cooling to increase the speed of cooling. Other waste heat sources are not as apparent and include things like hot surfaces, steam leaks, boiler blow down water, etc. Table 1 and Figure 1 show several major sources along with the temperature range and characteristics of the source."

Jan 1, 2011

By John R. Hugens

Modifications in the ALSCAN method of measuring hydrogen dissolved in liquid aluminum have made it possible to monitor the level of hydrogen dissolved in liquid copper. Measurements from the tundish show a correlation with eddy current readings from the continuously cast and rolled copper rod from the continuous casting and rolling system at Amarillo. The measurements also indicate that the copper in the tundish is supersaturated with hydrogen.

Jan 1, 1994

By Akita Ito, Sumio Kato, Mikio Sugai, Shinichi Nakata

"Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) is a newly developed method for the sintering of metal and ceramic powders, and completes their densification at low temperature and in short period. The SiC powder was synthesized from diatomite and graphite or carbon black by heating at 1 450°C for 1 hr in an argon atmosphere. The synthesized SiC powder was heated at 1500-1800°C, 50 MPa for 15-18 min by SPS. The relative density of sintered SiC body increased with the rise in the temperature. The oxidation of the surface of the SiC particle and impurities in SiC from diatomite greatly influenced the sintering promotion of SPS.IntroductionThe SiC has high hardness because of the covalent bonding, and is also excellent in thermal and chemical stability. However, it is difficult to obtain a dense SiC sintered body by the combustion heating-method. Therefore, the dense SiC bodies have been made by the use of additives and I or the hot pressing (HP) method.In this study, the SiC powder was synthesized by using diatomite of natural products and graphite, and carbon black of reagent as raw materials, and the relationship between the properties of SiC powders prepared at various synthetic conditions and the density of sintered body by SPS was examined."

Jan 1, 2000

By R. D. MacDonald

The papers presented in this chapter cover a wide range of hydrometallurgical topics and might be considered to be unrelated to each other. All of the authors, however, utilized the basic methods of process mineralogy to characterize the reactants in their experiments and the products produced. The wide range of research topics which can be pursued successfully by the use of the methods of process mineralogy is a matter of interest in itself. One might speculate that the methods could be even more widely applied if only their utility were better recognized. These methods for characterizing reactants and products include principally x-ray diffraction, optical micros-copy, wet chemical analyses, instrumental chemical analyses, high intensity magnetic separation, micro-scale gravity separation, differential thermal analysis, micro-hardness testing, and judicious use of the sledgehammer and cold chisel. It is perhaps not by coincidence that most of the papers in this chapter were prepared not by mineralogists, but by hydrometallurgists, who are recognizing the importance of thinking in terms of mineral phases, and not just assays! It appears that the gap between process mineralogy and the mineral industry is closing, and that future AIME sessions promise to become established forums where mutual discussion of such topics as metallurgical "troubleshooting" and process design may become commonplace between plant engineer and process mineralogist.

Jan 1, 1981

By Peng Fan

Nitride capacity is usually employed as the measure of slag?s ability to remove nitrogen from liquid metal, since nitrogen distribution ratio between slag and metal can be calculated from nitride capacity provided that the value of oxygen activity in liquid metal is available. However, during liquid metal refining processes, oxygen activity in liquid metal is usually unknown and thus it is impossible to get nitrogen distribution ratio from nitride capacity under this usual condition. In this paper, thermodynamic analysis indicates that the activity coefficient of nitride in slag can be used to measure slag?s ability to remove nitrogen from liquid metal, because nitrogen distribution ratio between slag and metal can be calculated from the activity coefficient of nitride in slag provided that the content of oxygen potential controlling element like Al in liquid metal is available. Review of reported nitrogen removal studies and our recent study has verified that for a given Al content in metal, the lower the AlN activity coefficient in slag is, the higher the nitrogen distribution ratio. Titanium monoxide based slag has been found to be much more effective to remove nitrogen than other slags. Since Al content in liquid metal is usually available during liquid metal refining processes, AlN seems to be a better measure of slag?s ability to remove nitrogen from liquid metal.

Jan 1, 2006

By M. I. Kalashnikova

The leaching of metal nickel in copper sulfate solutions is investigated. It is established, that irre-spective of presence or absence of chloride-ion and oxidizer (oxygen) in system process can be divided into three stages, characterizing by restoration and oxidation of metals with formation of metal copper and cuprite and differing in the speeds of sedimentation of copper and transition of nickel into solution. At the initial stage of process along with allocation of metal copper it is be-sieged cuprite, that results in excess of speed of sedimentation of copper in comparison with dis-solution of nickel. At the second stage speed of transition of nickel into solution falls practically to zero, and sedimentation of copper proceeds on reaction of interaction of metal copper with copper sulfate solutions with cuprite formation. During the final period speed of transition of nickel into solution exceeds speed of sedimentation of copper due to course of reaction of resto-ration of cuprite up to metal. Influence of an ion of chloride and oxidizer on formation of various phases is revealed. It is established, that presence of an oxidizer results in increase in a share of cuprite in a deposit. With increase of the maintenance of chloride-ion speed of metal copper allo-cation essentially grows even at presence of an oxidizer in system.

Jan 1, 2006

By Esperidiana A. B. Moura, Michelle Gomes, Cordelia M. F. Escanhoela, Francisco R. V. Diaz, Angel Ortiz, Rene R. Oliveira

"This work evaluates changes in morphological, mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties of electron-beam irradiated HDPE/nanoclay and HDPE/Piassava fiber/nanoclay. Material samples irradiated with 100 and 200 kGy using a 1.5 Me V electron beam accelerator (room temperature, presence of air) were submitted to tensile, flexural, and HDT tests. MFI, SEM and XRD analyses were carried out. Correlation between properties was discussed. Results showed that incorporation of piassava (Attalea funifera Mart) fiber and nanoclay, followed by irradiation represented significant gain in thermo-mechanical properties. Changes in surface morphology and reduction in MFI were observed. In conclusion, it may be claimed that the incorporation of piassava fiber in small size particles and nanoclay in the HDPE followed by electron-beam irradiation effectively improved the polymer properties and led to materials with superior properties suitable for several industrial applications.1. IntroductionIn recent years, the preference for using natural fibers instead of synthetic ones in polymer composites has been growing significantly. In Brazil, due to the great diversity of woody and fibrous plants of our forests, a vast potential of natural fibers is found, presenting good mechanical strength properties, chemical and biological stability, fire resistance, abrasion resistance, shear strength and lightness, among other which may contribute to the development of new materials for different applications such as automotive, aerospace, construction, food segment, cosmetics and others [ 1]."

Jan 1, 2013

By Paykan Safe

The primary source of fugitive gas emissions in most copper smelters are the Peirce Smith converter operations. The modem trend is towards installation of secondary gas collection systems which are intended to collect fugitive gases from charging, standby, and skimming operations. These have been installed with varying degrees of success. Often, the major source of emissions from the converter area is leakage of process gas from the primary hoods when the converter is blowing. This gas is typically collected by the secondary system and discharged to atmosphere or scrubbed with an alkaline agent. Those smelters considering installation of secondary hoods or scrubbing of gases from secondary systems should first address the issue of gas leakage from the primary hoods. Improving the primary hood gas collection efficiency will often be more cost effective than installing secondary hooding. In the case of secondary gas scrubbing, it will significantly reduce the reagent consumption and operating cost of the scrubbing system. This paper examines the parameters that determine whether or not a primary hood will effectively collect process gases without leakage and demonstrates, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the effects of variations in these parameters on the overall performance of the hood. It also looks at the application of CFD techniques in the design of secondary hoods and presents a summary of measured emissions from converter buildings.

Jan 1, 2002

By Tianyou Huang, Yuan Lu, Haimin Long, Jinwu Kang, Gang Nie

"The distortion of metal parts during heat treatment process is one of the main obstacles in industry to ensure high-quality work and less or no machining allowance, especially for large but thin steel castings such as heavy turbine blades. In the paper, a method is proposed to control the distortion by adjusting heat transfer coefficient of metal parts during heat treatment process. Required heat transfer coefficients can be realized by getting the metal parts into contact with various media such as water spray, insulation felt or materials with different heat conductivity. The control method based on this idea is set up and achieved. By using insulation felt and water spray to change the heat transfer coefficient during the stages of heat treatment process, the results indicate that the proper control time and vary with materials.IntroductionThe distortion of metal parts during heat treatment process is one of the main obstacles in industry to ensure high-quality work and to realize less or no machining allowance [1]. For example, the Three Gorges turbine blade’s distortion is as large as 50mm during heat treatment process. The uneven heating and cooling during heat treatment process is the main reason for distortion [2]. By adjusting heat transfer coefficient of different areas of metal parts, the heat treatment process could be controlled. The temperature variation, direct cause for distortion, could be under control. Loeser Klaus used high pressure gas to achieve uniform heat transfer during gas quenching and proposed the possibility to use ""Dynamic Quenching"" processes where the quenching severity is varied during quenching by stepwise control of either gas velocity or gas pressure [3]. Li Zhichao also suggested minimizing distortion by marking a component into several areas and imposing different heat transfer coefficients on each area [4]. Heat transfer coefficient can be controlled by getting the metal parts into contact with different media such as water spray, insulation felt, air or different heat conduction materials. In addition, the exact time to adjust the heat transfer coefficient is another factor for distortion. A method is presented in this paper by actively adjusting heat transfer coefficient for different areas of metal parts and different stages of heat treatment process to control their distortion. The corresponding experiments have been made by using different metal materials."

Jan 1, 2012

By Terry Mandziak

Typical leach mine operations recover gold values through the application of a dilute cyanide solution onto ore within an engineered facility. Key to the success of mining operations is the, containment and management of the cyanide solutions within the facility. Properly engineered' facilities will have containment systems that are both protective of the environment while enhancing solution recovery. This paper not only discusses general containment standards, but identifies state-of-the-art containment and monitoring practices;

Jan 1, 1998

By T. J. A. Smith

This paper provides an overview of some of the key issues in design of smelter gas handling systems, with particular reference to smelter smelting plants. In both primary smelting and converting, gas handling and treatment systems often represent the major capital cost component. There is also ample evidence that poor system design can be a major cause of smelter down time, lost production and unforeseen high maintenance costs. The paper discusses these issues and offers guidance for improved design.

Jan 1, 1992

By H. Kurama

In this paper, utilization of fly ash as a value added product in areas such as novel materials, waste management, fillers and agriculture is reviewed with the aim of helping the expand of the usage of fly ash and reduce the environmental and economic impacts of disposal. The used unburned carbon benefication/treatment methods such as low temperature combustion, froth flotation, partical size classification and electrostatic separations to remove unburned carbon particles from fly ash are also discussed.

Jan 1, 2006

By Linping Yu

A simplified ED process was developed for organic acids recovery from cyclohexanone waste in this paper. In this regard, the one-stage ED was investigated directly without pretreatment, such as ion-exchange or nanofiltration to removal of foulants. The current efficiency and the energy consumption in the ED process for the recovery of carboxylic acids from cyclohexanone waste is theoretically analyzed and experimentally tested. The concentration of recovered carboxylic acid is related to many parameters and still needs more work to be determined.

Jan 1, 2009

By Olli Hyvärinen

The capacity of Outokumpu Pori Copper Refinery has been increased by 50 % to 70 000 t/a in the last five years by adopting periodic current reversal, reducing spacing and installing some new cells in the old tank house building. Five years operation of PCR has proved that it is possible to achieve additional capacity with PCR and yet produce high quality cathodes. The impurity level in anodes has considerably increased, and recently, arsenic, antimony and sometimes bismuth have displaced nickel as the most critical impurity.

Jan 1, 1987