Search Documents

By T. E. Warner

In order to detect arsenic and antimony in zinc, various electrochemcial experiments were performed involving the electrochemical introduction of sodium atoms into molten zinc using a solid electrolyte. Under high rates, the formation of the intermetallic phase NaZn13 was assumed to form. Under more moderate injection rates of sodium, employing a symmetric "zinc/zinc cell", a qualitative relationship between the current generated during cyclic voltammeuy and the arsenic and antimony concentrations in molten zinc was observed.

Jan 1, 1999

By KNona Liddell

Many metal recovery processes Involve heterogeneous reactions In porous media accompanied by fluid flow and mass transfer. Modeling such systems Is difficult because of the number of rate processes Involved and is complicated even further by effects due to the structure of the porous medium. Data on even bulk properties of the medium are often severely limited or unavailable. For many such systems, a cell model may provide, an attractive alternative to models based on transport ,mechanisms in a differential volume. A cell model requires less input data and is computationally efficient. Identical residence time distributions can be obtained with models of both types, and both allow conversion and concentration profiles and histories to be calculated. The formulation and properties of cell models for metals recovery are described in detail.

Jan 1, 1996

By Christoph Sagadin

Corrosion mechanisms between high melting synthetic ferronickel slags and refractory were investigated. The used slags were prepared by mixing and melting of specific oxides. Substrates of the applied refractory material and specimens of FeNi slags were heated in a hot stage microscope up to 1650 °C. The experiments were performed under a defined gas atmosphere of 60% CO and 40% CO2. A further examination of the formed phases between slag and refractory occurred by scanning electron microscope. The investigations indicate that the slag penetrates between magnesia grains and partly dissolves magnesia. Spot analyses show that iron diffuses into the magnesia grains, which transform to magnesiawustite, meanwhile SiO2 forms different types of olivine like forsterite and monticellite. Thermodynamic calculations confirm the formation of these phases. The combination of practical lab scale experiments and thermodynamic calculations should finally contribute to an improvement of the refractory lifetime and performance.

By O. Forsén

In the first part of this paper is studied the behaviour of small amounts of impurity elements? in the solidification of copper anodes. In the second part the dissolution of these impure anodes in sulphate based electrolysis is discussed. The first part is introduced with practical examples, the .model of solidification of impurities during the solidification of anode copper. According to this model the solidification structures of anode copper are strongly influenced by both thermodynamic and kinetic factors. Thermodynamics determine the microstructure of anode copper, but kinetics can alter the composition of melt to such that there is formed unequilibrium structures during the solidification, especially when the residual melt is solidified. The electrolysis experiments have clarified the behaviour of impuririties in the electrochemical dissolution in sulphate. Based copper electrolysis. In this study it is widely investigated to what extent any impurity elements or oxides will dissolve. In copper electrorefining. With the aid of the electrochemtcal experiments it was possible to fulfil quantitatively the qualitative results accomplished by microstructure studies.

Jan 1, 1985

By Reinhard Bott

The Companhia Mineira de Metais (Brazil) runs a Zn-recovery plant in Tres Marias, federal state Minas Gerais, Brazil. The Zn-production is about 65,000 t/a, This corresponds to a concentrate throughput of about 255,000 t/a with a Zncontent of about 29.5 % at an output of 85 %, The plant is run continuously 360 d/a and 24 h/d, respectively. From this it can be concluded that: Input: approx. 650 - 700 t/d ore-concentrate and approx. 29 t/h ore-concentrate, respectively.

Jan 1, 1990

By A. V. Tarasov

An environmentally clean and virtually waste-less technology for treatment of domestic solid waste and other toxic chloride-containing materials has been developed and proven on a full scale by the Gintsvetmet Institute in cooperation with some other Russian organizations. The proposed process resolves the acute and globally significant problem of dioxin formation. The purpose of the proposed technology is to ensure such destruction of the structural lattice of toxic compounds that would guarantee irreversible transformation of the resultant substances to prevent formation of dioxins. The preconditions that are required to achieve this purpose are: temperature of >125O0C; an oxidant excess coefficient of >I .05; a certain retention time of the products under these conditions (ADZ s); and thermal instantaneousness of the process involving a transition with no intermediate phase. These conditions were achieved with the experimental development of the Vanyukov furnace design commonly used for sparged smelting processes at non-ferrous metallurgical plants in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Jan 1, 2002

By Victor Stancovski, Uday Pal, Stephen C. Britten

"An in situ electrochemical technique for measuring the concentrations of easily dissociable oxides in slags at temperatures between 1200-1600°C is being developed. The technique utilizes a partially-stabilized-zirconia solid electrolyte (PSZ), which conducts oxygen ions, to separate a reference-gas compartment from the slag of interest. Three types of measurements are currently under investigation which yield different information concerning the slag phase and hence will be combined into a single amperometric device for monitoring the properties of easily dissociable slags.Type I utilizes an open-circuit-voltage measurement between the reference gas and the slag phase. Type II utilizes a potentiostat to apply a direct current potential step or sweep between the inner and outer compartments of the electrolyte, driving oxygen ions from the slag into a reference gas. With the use of open-circuit-reference electrodes, the resulting current-potential profile reveals the dissociation potential and concentration profile of dissociable oxides such as those of iron, manganese, and chromium. Information on the transport properties of the cations can also be generated from these measurements. Type III utilizes a potentiostat with reference electrodes to carefully electrolyze a known volume of slag by removing large quantities of oxygen ions from the slag to the reference gas. The coulombs of charge removed at different applied potentials can be used as a direct indication of the concentration of each dissociable oxide species present within the slag."

Jan 1, 1997

By D. S. Barr

Mineralogical, lithological, and metallurgical studies were conducted on various gold ore deposits currently controlled by Freeport-McMoRan Gold Company. Ore samples were first lithologically and mineralogically categorized, then subjected to chlorination, roasting, and autoclaving pretreatments to determine their effects on gold recovery in a subsequent alkaline cyanide carbon-in-leach extraction. The studies indicate that, while organic carbon and sulfide sulfur are the primary refractory components, their effect on process response must be interpreted with respect to the deposit's geology and mineralogy. This approach has proven to be an effective method for evaluating metallurgical alternatives and fore-casting future mill performance.

Jan 1, 1987

By N. A. Warner

To filly secure the environmental and social acceptability benefits of making a sulphide smelting facility and its ancillary sulphuric acid plant or other means for fixing sulphur, a virtually zero gas emission operation, it will be necessary to utilise exclusively technically pure oxygen. The strategy proposed for preventing the smelter from overheating involves highly efficient energy transfer by promoting sulphur trioxide formation at a relatively higher temperature than normal. A closed-loop gas circuit uses an eductor system actuated by the process oxygen to recirculate sulphur trioxide and unconverted sulphur dioxide back to the smelter, the endothermic dissociation of sulphur trioxide becoming a major contributor to the removal of excess heat. The only gases leaving the system relate to the bleed of nitrogen impurity introduced in the tonnage oxygen.

Jan 1, 1998

By Osamu Takeda

A decomposition process for PCBs by using basic molten salts as a reaction field was investigated in order to establish a safe, simple and highly efficient decomposition process for polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs). PCB containing chlorine (e.g. 2, 2?, 4, 4?-tetrachlorobiphenyl) dissolved in n-nonane solution was supplied into basic molten salts (NaOH-Na2CO3 or KOH-K2CO3) maintained at 500-700 ?C together with the carrier gas (N2-21% O2) through an injection tube. The injected PCBs in a bubble are decomposed by the reaction with the molten salts and oxygen during rise in the molten salts. The decomposition efficiency of PCBs increased with increasing temperature and was achieved to be higher than 99.995% in a certain condition. From a series of systematic study, the effectiveness of the decomposition process for PCBs by using molten salts was demonstrated.

Jan 1, 2008

By Carlos Maurício. F. Vieira, Lázaro A. Rohen, Sérgio N. Monteiro, Rafael G. de Castro, Gustavo X. Borges, Maycon A. Gomes, Frederico M. Margem, Anna C. C. Neves

Economic and environmental benefits are motivating studies on natural fibers, especially lignocellulosic extracted from plants, have been studied to substitute synthetic fibers, such as glass fiber as reinforcement in polymer matrices. By contrast to synthetic fibers, natural fibers have the disadvantage of being heterogeneous in their dimensions specially the diameter. About the hemp fiber, little is known of their dimensional characteristics. The aim of the present work was to statistically characterize the distribution of the diameter of hemp fibers. Based on this characterization, diameter intervals were set and the dependence of the tensile strength of theses fibers with a corresponding diameter was analyzed by the Weibull method. The diameter was measured with precision using a profile projector. Tensile tests were conducted on each fiber obtain mechanical strength. The results interpreted by Weibull statistical showed a correlation between the resistances of the fiber to its diameter.

Jan 1, 2015

By Xianwen Dai

One of the biggest challenges for the gold industry in the 21st century is the presence of copper in gold containing ore bodies. This is because copper consumes large quantities of cyanide. In addition, copper cyanide species are more stable than free cyanide, and hence are problematic in events of tailings spillage. The present paper compares cyanide and thiosulfate leaching for the recovery of gold from a copper containing ore. For cyanide leaching, the extraction of gold using copper cyanide complexes instead of free cyanide was tested in the presence and absence of added ammonia. For the thiosulfate leaching, the effect of the minerals present in the ore on the solution potential and thiosulfate consumption are illustrated.

Jan 1, 2003

By Enrique Posada

"The Valle de Aburrá area, corresponds to the city of Medellín and neighboring municipalities, with more than 3 million people. The area generates a sizable amount of solid waste, which has been taken to landfills for the last 20 years. This paper proposes a model for public policy making which considers the cost and benefit of different alternatives to handle the wastes in the coming 20 years. Combinations of several alternatives: Recycling, waste reduction, waste separation, incineration, land filling with lixiviate treating and gas energy recovery, and organic waste composting are considered and modeled and the results presented as a contribution for a more rational approach to policy making than the one currently being employed.IntroductionThe author, working for INDISA S.A., acted as a consultant for the direction of planning of the Empresas Varias de Medellín in 2004. This entity has the responsibility for the handling of the solid wastes of the city of Medellín and some of the neighboring municipalities. At the present time more the 700.000 annual tons of waste are taken to the site of La Pradera, located in very rainy location (3.000 mm of precipitation per year), with complex in topography and very far away from the sources of the waste. During the work the author detected important problems that should be addressed, as follows:Lack of adequate technical administration and resources. The entity did not count with sufficient human resources to focus on the appropriate technical handling of the solid waste. The organization worked mostly with independent contractors, lacking enough coherence and integration. The internal workload was too large for the few people who had technical responsibility and this gave rise to attention problems. It is important to have clear technical procedures, technical know how and human resources, continuity in the activities. It is important to have a clear capacity to plan, to study, to make tests and monitoring, to pursuit and develop ideas, to optimize the processes and to introduce changes, to respond to environmental authorities, to the communities and to mass media and to handle the contractors. All this was basically lacking. In the case of the handling of the sanitary filling of La Pradera, for example, although the people in charge were very able and dedicated, the magnitude of the task was too large and the resources they had were insufficient. As a result, the site had at the time of the study, problems with thousands of vultures, lack of immediate cover up for the waste, uncontrolled leaching, the area being dirty and little attractive, despite being called a park."

Jan 1, 2008

By Jörg Buchmayer, Menno Eisenga, Erik Muijsenberg

"In the past decade, advanced multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) process control systems have found their way into high temperature melting processes. Today a growing number of high temperature melters have been equipped with a supervisory control system. Daily regulation of fossil fuel firing and electric energy supply to stabilize temperatures is no longer in the hands of the operator, but fully taken over automatically by the ES III™ MPC controller, which provides consistent process control, 24 hours per day, focused to operate the entire glass production process in the most efficient way. The presentation will show practical results and benefits achieved in the high temperature glass and cement industry.IntroductionThe Expert System, either version ESII™ or ESIII™, provides supervisory multi-variable model based predictive control in time and space This definition is not very understandable to people who are not familiar with advanced process control, thus let's try to explain it word by word.The word supervisory means that the Expert System implementation preserves the primary control level: all devices (PLCs, internal switches) as well as up to date control mechanisms (PID loops, availability to change inputs manually). ES III™ can even use primary control level elements as part of the advanced process control.The next word, multi-variable, means that multiple inputs can be handled at the same time to affect multiple outputs. This property is very important for supervisory control of the glass melting and conditioning processes. For example, in a float furnace the total amount of gas is only one of the inputs that affect the crown temperatures. The next one is batch feed rate. And batch composition (the next one) is maybe even more important. An ambient temperature also correlates with crown temperatures. So it can be concluded that crown temperatures are affected not only by one variable ""total gas"", but by many more. On the other hand, there are usually several crown temperatures with different importance for process control. And we have not discussed yet the effects of glass level, canal temperatures, oxy-boosting, etc. All of them affect (or are affected by) process control too. Overall, the process control is a complex problem where multiple inputs and outputs play strongly together at various levels of importance."

Jan 1, 2012

By M. Hadj Meliani

This paper explores direct use of finite element analysis by CASTEM 2000 in order to determine the evolution of T-stress term for arc of pipe specimens with external surface crack. A simple method, called the stress difference method proposed by Yang (1999), is used to compute the elastic T-stress in mode I at a crack tip. The different crack geometries and length-to-thickness ratio on T-stress and stress-intensity factor (SIF) are examined. The revisited stress difference method is shown to be an accurate and robust scheme for evaluating T-stress in arc of pipe.

Jan 1, 2006

By Yuri Gelfgat

"This paper presents some results of the investigation of the steady magnetic field influence on hydrodynamics and heat/mass transfer in processes of semiconductor single crystal growth (Si, Ge, InSn). The investigation employed mathematical and physical simulation techniques of relevant processes and full-scale experiments on growth facilities. A number of additional MHD phenomena have been found generated in the melt due to the rearrangement of flow pattern, the formation of specific convective cells, and the origin of MHD boundary and shift layer.IntroductionMagnetohydrodynamic (MHD) means of creating forces by contact-free methods in liquid conducting media have been widely used in the production of volume semiconducting single crystals. The goal of this method is to control convective transfer processes in the melt volume and on the crystallization front [1-3]. This is due to the sufficiently high conductivity of semiconductor melts (s = 104 /106 O1m-1 ) and an obvious relationship between the hydrodynamics in the melt and at interfaces and the conditions of formation of single crystals and their quality [ 1].All types of MHD effects rest upon the generation of volume electromagnetic forces in the melt by various means as well as on the possibility to direct them arbitrary in space and to adjust easily their absolute values. Fig. l presents different means how to implement MHD phenomena during single crystal growth. It should be emphasized that in all the modifications given in Fig. l additional energy introduced into the melt cannot influence directly the crystallization process since it is incomparable to the energy of molecular forces. Both the influence and efficiency of MHD means are determined solely by the change of motion, heat and mass transfer characteristics."

Jan 1, 1998

By Larry G. Stolarczyk

The development of geosteering technology for geothermal reservoirs is challenged by the integration of electrically small antennas in small-diameter metallic drill rods. To be useful, the antenna pattern must achieve sufficient back-lobe suppression, preferably with a forward-looking pattern. Forward-looking capability requires an antenna array with phase control. The phase-controlled antenna pattern enables imaging of geologic structures ahead of and surrounding the well bore. This paper describes the development of electric and magnetic dipole arrays for small-diameter drilling pipe.

Jan 1, 2006

By K. B. Dotson

A common international safety and health management system was developed. Analysis of selected major safety and health management systems from around the world was conducted. Functional elements of selected systems were grouped to identify common elements and key differences. Common elements were subjected to qualitative judgments of equivalency and then reconciled. With few exceptions, differing elements were revised to achieve cultural neutrality. The resulting 98 system elements were organized according to the NOSA numbering and title scheme. System summaries were produced in Spanish and English. A pre-implementation self-assessment evaluated conformance in three distinct cultures. The consensus 98 element system was internally named the BHP Copper Five Star Safety System Performance Management Guidelines. Development of a common system within an organization with international operations can enhance the ability of the staff function to share resources, programs and subsystem improvements and thereby increasingly protect workers. Common systems can increase the level of management support by demonstrating increased compatibility of the safety and health management function with traditional business objectives. Safety professionals, industrial and occupational hygienists, business managers and the safety and health of workers will benefit from further development and articulation of common systems for safety and health management.

Jan 1, 1999

By K. A. Elbarawy

Processing of Egyptian barite ore with a composition of 85.5% BaSO4; 2.75%SiO2;1.56%Fe2O3 and 5.1% Al2O3 was performed with the aim to prepare pure barium salts. The process took place through pelletization-solid state reduction and leaching steps. Each of these steps was optimized. Pure barium sulphate (99% < 0.82µm) and carbonate (99%<0.75µm )were the final products. This article deals with the reduction process that occur whn coal was added to the ore during pelletization in the ratio of 5:1 stoichiometry. Optimum reduction of pellets of 8-12mm in diameter was achieved after 60 minutes at 1050oC and under a rate of 5 lmin-1 of nitrogen atmosphere, where 87.79% of the ore was reduced. The kinetic studies showed that the reduction process could be modeled according to the core mechanism of diffusion control in which the effective diffusivity is based on the surface area of unreacted ore. The activation energy calculated was 92.7 kJmol-1.

Jan 1, 2006

By Gregor Kücher

Lack of basic knowledge on the semi-direct recycling methods for hard metals hinders the application on an industrial scale. However, advantages like reduced expenses and lower environmental impact draw interest at future potentials. Consequently, this report aims to offer insight into the influence of varying bulky hard metal substrates during their lixiviation in acidic media with an oxidant. The statistical software Modde 11 assisted in the development of a design of experiments (DOE) for evaluation of the impact of average grain size, binder and tantalum carbide (TaC) content on the leaching characteristics. The other experimental parameters were constant. Among them were temperature, solution concentration and quantity, duration and substrate surface exposed to liquid volume. Eventually, prediction plots and factors of the computed model equation describe the effects of varying substrate qualities on leached binder metal and selectivity.