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By A. Warczok

The heat transfer coefficient between liquid slags and solid surfaces is important for the design and operation of metallurgical reactors. An experimental technique developed for the purpose of measuring the heat transfer coefficient between liquid slags and solid metals is described. During the initial heating up of a Ni cylinder upon immersion in a liquid slag, a layer of frozen slag initially forms, then melts. The heat transfer coefficient measured during the initial rapid heat-up of the Ni cylinder, is approximately twice as high as the heat transfer coefficient measured during the final heat-up of the Ni cylinder subsequent of the liquidus temperature of the slag. The technique was tested in various melts i) NaNO3, ii) NaCl, iii) Na3AlF6 and iv) 2FeO*SiO2, giving consistent results. It was found that the heat transfer coefficient increases with increasing bath superheat and stirring. The heat transfer coefficient during the heating up following complete remelting of the frozen slag, is related to the slag superheat(AT) and the specific stirring energy(W) per kg of slag(E) as follows.

Jan 1, 1993

"Hematite pellets were electro-deoxidized to iron in molten sodium hydroxide to produce iron containing about 10-wt % oxygen. The anodic reaction was the evolution of oxygen on an inert nickel anode. Before the electrochemical reaction, there is a reaction between sodium hydroxide and ferric oxide to form sodium ferrite and, in order to compensate for the reduction in sodium oxide content, 1 wt % sodium oxide is added to the melt. In a laboratory cell, the cell voltage was 1.7 V with a current density of 5000 A m-2, a current efficiency of 90% and an energy consumption of 2.8 kWh kg-1.Introduction The iron and steel industry contributes about 2.3 bn tonnes/annum of the carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which is about 10% of the total, and some believe that, in order to prevent a catastrophic rise in the earth’s temperature, carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced by 50% come 2050. However, by 2050, it is likely that the iron and steel industry would have grown significantly so that the production may have risen to 2 or 3 bn tonnes/year so in order to meet the 50 % reduction on today’s figure, the carbon dioxide may have to be reduced to 25% or less, which is a very demanding requirement. There are probably three ways of reducing the carbon dioxide output:1. By capture and sequestration, but this may be technically very demanding.2. Reduction using hydrogen in place of carbon."

Jan 1, 2009

By C. Dresen

This paper discussed the reaction kinetics of the reduction of industrial phosphate pellets for P4 production. In the reduction process of various phosphate ores, the following parameters were investigated: Diffusion of the phosphorus oxide and other gaseous products from the reaction mixture after having been reduced on the reductant (coke) surface. Influence of silica on reaction kinetics. Temperature influence. Influence of mineralogy and morphology (different ores). Particle size influence of silica and coke. Experiments were carried out in a vertical tube furnace with 2 ores, 2 types of silica and one type of coke. Selected experimental conditions simulated furnace conditions. The following conclusions could be made: Reaction rate increases with the addition of SiO2 into the pellet. The reaction rate increases above 1350°C (melting temperature of the slag). Mixing different ore types in the pellets leads to differences in reduction kinetics. Particle size of the coke particles influence reduction kinetics. The amount of slag formation is influenced by silica addition, coke size and temperature.

Jan 1, 2002

By Dan Wang, Qian Xu, Guangshi Li, Xionggang Lu, Xingli Zou, Zhongfu Zhou, Hongwei Cheng, Changyuan Lu

The preoxidation of the ore has a profound significance to the concentration, separation and purification of nickel and copper from the lean complex ore. In this paper, the natural Ni-Cu sulfide mineral samples under the elevated temperature condition in air were investigated, as well as under isothermal condition at 600 oC in air. The mineralogical characterization was studied using XRF, ICP and the Rietveld method. The oxidation behavior and the element migration of the Ni-Cu sulfide ore were studied by XRD, SEM-EDS and TG. The XRD Rietveld method was successfully developed in the phase identification and quantification of this complex ore powder sample. The oxidative intermediates (Cu/Ni-ferrite) were detected by XRD, and the process of the element migration was obviously revealed by the line scans using SEM-EDS. It is the preoxidation of this mineral that provides guidance for the extraction of valuable metals from low-grade Ni-Cu sulfide ores in the future.

Jan 1, 2015

By Dean G. Heitt

"The Rain and SMZ mines from 1987 to 1994 produced a total of22.0 t of gold from a pre-mine reserve of 14.24 Mt of ore grading 2.13 g/t Au.Gold at Rain is hosted within the basal portion of the Mississippian Webb Formation. ·Mineralization is closely tied to the Rain Fault which is interpreted to be the main feeder for the deposit. Multiple collapse and hydrothermal breccia events provided permeability for the mineralizing fluids in the otherwise unreactive siltstones. Major alteration events include: decalcification and dolomitization of the Devils Gate Limestone; and silicification, baritization, argillization and oxidation of the Webb Fm. Six ore types based on XRD and visual rock chip Jogging have been identified: siliceous ore containing >40% quartz and <30% barite; siliceous-baritic ore containing mostly silica but >30% barite; baritic ore containing >40% barite; argillaceous ore containing >40% total clays (including alunite); calcareous ore containing mostly calcite and dolomite; and carbonaceous ore which has significant pyrite and organic carbon. Metallurgical testing of the oxide leach grade ores found that recoveries, on -1.3 cm crushed material, were greater than 70%. Results also found that Rain ore has strong grind dependency due to silica encapsulation.The Rain leach pad was commissioned in 1988, and to date 9.3·Mt at an average grade of0.65 g/t Au have been placed. Life to date recovery, through December 1995, is approximately 51 %, for a total of3.87 t of gold produced. Two major factors have contributed to the low leach recoveries at Rain when compared with the metallurgical testing: 1) More argillaceous ore than expected was placed on the pad especially late in the mine life and 2) approximately 50% of the tons placed were run-of-mine with no agglomeration."

Jan 1, 1997

By M. J. Soria-Aguilar, F. R. Carrillo-Pedroza, S. Preciado-Nuñez

"Dust originated from the Iron Blast Furnace (BF) and the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) containing alkalis and zinc are not completely recycled because due affects the process efficiency. These types of dust represents an economical lost as a consequence of values contents of iron and carbon. Several processes in aqueous media have been developed to treat the steelmaking dust. This work presents a laboratory study for reduce zinc and alkali containing in BF and BOF dust, using different acid and alkaline solutions and oxidants as ozone. The results obtained show that the elimination of zinc and alkalis can vary from 5 % to 80 % depending on the treatment conditions (the solution, the oxidant and the temperature). The dust obtained from this treatment can to be recycling to the steelmaking processes to recovery iron and carbon values.IntroductionEach one of the steel making industry processes generate several sub-products and residues containing useful units of iron, carbon and other elements that are or could be recycled to the productive process. Some of those sub products are the dust from the gas cleaning system of the blast furnace and the dust from BOF reductive process; such dusts are sent to the sedimentary lagoons. The dust represent a lost of 2 % of the total iron and coal mineral’s content feed to the process.The typical iron, carbon and zinc content of the blast furnace dust is approximately 40, 24 and 0.3 % and the content of the BOF dust are 50, 15 and 0.9 % weight respectively, with physics - chemical characteristics that became them susceptible to be agglomerated and feed to the blast furnace. But the high content of zinc does not allow recycling it into the process. At the blast furnace the presence of zinc propitiate the formation of film in the furnace wall; these elements are vaporized in the low section of the cube of the furnace and they are dragged by the gases to the top and condensed again at the cube. Part of these condensed materials strongly adheres to the furnace cover harming it and reducing the empty space of that section, causing eventually a severe perturbation of the ascendant gas flux [1]."

Jan 1, 2008

By Thomas Brynjulfsen, Merete Tangstad, Eli Ringdalen

Manganese ore fines cannot be added to the submerged arc furnace directly as they will prevent even gas flow through the burden. Low gas permeability in the burden will lower the degree of pre-reduction of ore subsequently increase the carbon and energy consumption of the process. In order to utilize manganese ore fines in the furnace, they are typically agglomerated into sinter. In this work, the melting and reduction properties of Gabonese sinter and Gabonese ore have been investigated in pilot scale experiments. Two experiments were conducted, one with 100% sinter as manganese source and one with 50/50 sinter and ore. Lime was used to achieve a charge basicity of 0.72 in both experiments. The composition of slag samples from the excavation of the furnace was established using EPMA(WDS), and the composition of the tapped slag and metal was found using XRF. It was found that while the coke-bed size would determine the tapped slag composition, the melting behavior of the Mn source would determine the mixing with lime.

Jan 1, 2014

By John Anawati

Bauxite residue is an environmentally unfriendly byproduct of alumina manufacturing, produced worldwide in large quantities. This material contains 50– 100 ppm of scandium, a critical material for the production of stronger, weldable, corrosion resistant, and heat tolerant aluminum products. Aircraft manufacturers are particularly interested in Al–Sc alloys because of its ability to form weldable alloys that could potentially reduce aircraft weight by 15–20%. Because of its abundance and low cost, bauxite residue has the potential to be used as an efficient feedstock for valorization processes to recover its scandium content, while in turn degrading this problematic waste. In this project, we developed an efficient process to recover scandium and rare earth elements from a Canadian bauxite residue with high extraction yields, using industrially scalable and economical techniques. The process employs a modified version of sulfuric acid leaching and subsequent impurity removal by selective precipitation. This article outlines the current progress and design rationale in the development and optimization of this innovative and sustainable recovery process.

By Shinya Otsuka

Activity coefficient of oxygen in sulfide-rich and metal-rich melts in copper-sulfur binary were determined at 1423 and 1523 K by means of a modified coulometric titration technique using the following cell: 0 ( is Cu-S melts) I Zr02 (+Ca0) I air, Pt The activity coefficient values obtained in the present study increase rapidly with sulfur composition in the vicinity of xs = 0.3333. The data obtained for the matte saturated with the metal-rich melts are in good agreement with those obtained by Kuxmann and Benecke, Schmied 1, and Eguchi and Yazawa. Those obtained for the metal-rich melts are in good agreement with the results of Sano and Sakao.

Jan 1, 1983

By Jian Li

Corrosion resistance of materials is highly dependent on the microstructure of the specific material. Apart from general corrosion rate measurement using techniques like linear polarization and A.C. impedance, microstructural investigations are frequently needed to identify the root cause of corrosion. Advanced techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), have been well integrated into routine characterization studies. Other microscopy techniques, including electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA), Auger, X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), can provide detailed chemistry information on corrosion products. In recent years, focused-ion beam (FIB) microscopes have evolved into an important microstructural characterization instrument. In this study, corrosion of rebar encased in concrete was studied in great detail using advanced microscopy techniques. Corrosion product on the rebar surface was identified as ferrous oxide with relatively large crystal size. The morphology of this passive layer was thoroughly analyzed, and its formation mechanism is proposed.

Jan 1, 2009

By Tomás Vargas

The catalytic influence of a pure strain of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans (ATCC 19859) on the dissolution of natural pyrite crystals was studied using electrochemical techniques. The results showed that this microorganism catalyze the leaching of pyrite by both, oxidizing ferrous iron in solution and depolarizing the reduction of ferric ion on this sulfide. In addition, studies of bacterial corrosion under applied potential showed that pitting on the pyrite surface centers on weak sites of the sulfide structure in which bacteria has attached, but occurs only when the ferric iron in solution induces an adequate level of anodic polarization on the mineral.

Jan 1, 1992

By Pedro A. Netto, Sergio N. Monteiro, Foluke S. de Assis, Rômulo L. Loiola, Frederico M. Margem

Banana fibers are among the lignocellulosic with great potential for use in polymer composites, such as the variety from the Musaceae family, due to its low density and good mechanical properties. In this work, epoxy matrix composites incorporated with continuous and aligned banana fibers were tested for their flexural behavior. Specimens with up to 30% in volume of fibers were bend-tested until rupture. The results showed an increase in both the composite mechanical strength and the stiffness with incorporation of these fibers. A fractographic analysis by SEM examinations a moderate adhesion mechanism between the banana fiber and the epoxy matrix. This mechanism is apparently responsible for the improved performance of the composites.

Jan 1, 2015

By Neil Rowlands

Particle liberation studies are commonly used in the determination of the proportion of locked and liberated phases in ground ores at various stages of mineral processing. These studies may range from a qualitative assessment of a polished specimen in an optical microscope to a full quantitative analysis of the liberation characteristics of fine grained complex sulfide ores using scanning electron microscopy and high level image analysis. However, the conversion of quantitative data to meaningful information on a mill operations level is by no means a simple task. This paper reviews the errors inherent in the SEM/Image Analysis technique and looks at the various methods available to minimize errors in data collection.

Jan 1, 1992

By J. N. Kondo, M. Hara, T. Smida, N. Ooto, K. Domen

"A porous material composed of two-dimensional anionic sheets of a layered perovskite, KSrNb30 10, was studied as photocatalyst for the production of Hz in the presence of alcohol sacrificial donors. Colloidal single and multi-layered HSr2Nb30 10 sheets were formed by intercalating ietra(n-buthylammonium) cations into the interlayeres of H+-exchanged KSr2Nb30 10 (HSr2Nb30 10), and addition of HN03 solution to the colloidal suspension precipitated the porous materials in which HSrNb30 10 sh~ets rand~mly stuck together. Original HSr2Nb30 10 before exfoliation had a BET surface area of 1 m2 g-1, whereas the surface area of a porous material prepared under optimal conditions exceeded 100 m2 g-1. The porous HSr2Nb30 10 had considerably higher photocatalytic'activitie8 for oxidation of 1-propanol and 1-buthanol than HSr2Nb39io, indicating that in the porous materials many niobate sheets are available for decomposition of these large alcohols.IntroductionQuite a research effort has gone into the design and study of porous materials. Such materials with large surface areas would have applications in highly efficient adsorbents or catalytic reactions.We have been studying photocatalytic reaction by cation-exchangeable layered metal oxides, where alkali metal cations are intercalated into the interlayers of inorganic sheets.[1,2] There are several advantages to using layered compounds rather than bulk powders for photocatalysis. Layered compound is rich in variety, in addition, modifications of them are easily performed by exchanging alkali metal cations in the inter layers for H + or other metal cations. The most important advantage is that some layered compounds have considerably high photocatalytic activities than bulk catalysts because the electrons and holes generated in each thin inorganic sheet readily reach interlayer spaces as reaction sites at the illterlayer spaces. It should be very important for further improvements· of layered photocatalysts to utilize two-dimensional inorganic sheets effectively."

Jan 1, 2000

Off-gas cleaning from metallurgical plants requires? in many cases very low dust contents which are difficult to achieve with conventional scrubbers, even with high energy input. Lur.gi has developed a scrubber which improves the separation of the fine dust by electrical charge prior to. the scrubbing zone. An Electrostatic Scrubber has been successfully installed for the off-gas cleaning from slag&apos; granulation after a waelzkiln achieving less than 1 mg/m3 in the clean gas.

Jan 1, 1992

By Zhiqiang Han, Anil K. Sachdev, Baicheng Liu, Guomin Han, Alan A. Luo

The growth of precipitate phase ,B-Mg11Al12 in Mg-Al alloy is closely related to interface anisotropy and elastic interaction. The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of the interface anisotropy and elastic interaction on the morphology evolution and growth kinetics of the precipitate. In the work, the precipitation of ,B was studied using phase field modeling. In the model, the chemical free energy of the precipitate and the matrix were obtained via thermodynamic calculation. It is demonstrated that the interface anisotropy results in lath-shaped precipitate and the elastic interaction affects the shape of the end of the precipitate. The interface anisotropy causes uneven growth in different directions and the elastic interaction influences its preferential growth orientation. By combining the interface anisotropy and elastic interaction in the phase field modeling, the results showed that the precipitate phase has a lath-shape with lozenge ends, which is in agreement with experimental observations.

Jan 1, 2013

By W. Kasprzak

Press-fit systems are widely used to seal oil lines in the automotive engine components. In the case studied a ball plug made from the 7075 A1 alloy was inserted into a 319 Al alloy cast component. The oil lines were subjected to the required component service pressure. This paper addresses the analysis of the ball plug/casting hole press-fit performance. The tools used to investigate the plug system included: the SEMIEDS technique for the assessment of the plug and the casting hole wall surface integrity; image analysis methods for the characterization of the ball plug/casting hole interface; matrix microhardness measurements of the plug and casting components; laboratory ball plug insertion, speed and force correlation; as well as the ball shearing mechanism analysis. Laboratory tests indicated that optimization of the aluminum matrix hardness in the 319 A1 alloy cast components resulted in considerable improvement of the press-fit system sealing properties.

Jan 1, 2002

By J. D. Zhu, T. Ohmichi, H. Yasuda, S. Kashiwai, I. Ohnaka

"Since the casting process affects the properties of castings, its computer simulation has been greatly developed in the last decades. This paper presents our recent works, especially on mold filling simulation, because most casting defects such as porosities and inclusions that greatly affect the properties originate during mold filling. The first topic is the mold filling simulation with consideration of cavity pressure change during mold filling, including direct observation of flow phenomena with X-ray and pressure measurement. The second .one is the mold filling simulation in the lost foam process, in which gasification of polystyrene pattern and gas outflow through the coating and mold have been considered. The simulation can predict not only the mold filling sequences but also periodical vibration of the gas layer between the melt and pattern. The third one is the comparison of simulation of Al melt flow in a metallic runner and direct observation through a transparent mold, showing that the entrapped gas or inclusions is expelled ahead through the melt and its simulation needs very fine meshes. These examples show that the comparison of simulation and observation is very important to develop the numerical simulation further.IntroductionThe mechanical properties of castings are greatly affected by casting defects such as porosities and inclusions, and solidification structure. Although recently the structure simulation has greatly progressed [1-4 ], the application in plants is very limited, because the structure is mostly determined by chemical compositions and cooling rate, enabling us to estimate it from the structure of past similar castings without simulation.On the other hand, the casting defects often vary with each casting or time. Among the defects, porosities and inclusions are main causes to deteriorate the properties and mostly originate during mold filling. Therefore, a lot of efforts to simulate the mold filling and estimate those defects have been made in the last decades [l,5,6]. These efforts have been mostly to develop numerical techniques to solve the Navier-Stokes equation. However, the flow phenomena in molds have not been well understood, because the direct observation of the flow phenomena in mold is not easy. This means the accuracy of the simulation is still not clear."

Jan 1, 2000

By Yuzhe Zhang, Xiaodi Huang, Xinli Wang, Bowen Li, Matthew Andriese, Jiann-Yang Hwang, Zhiwei Peng

The recycling of waste tires has been a big environmental problem. About 280 million waste tires are produced annually in the United States and more than 2 billion tires are stockpiled, which cause fire hazards and health issues. Tire rubbers are insoluble elastic high polymer materials. They are not biodegradable and may take hundreds of years to decompose in the natural environment. Microwave irradiation can be a thermal processing method for the decomposition of tire rubbers. In this study, the microwave absorption properties of waste tire at various temperatures are characterized to determine the conditions favorable for the microwave heating of waste tires.

Jan 1, 2015

By G. Springer

The identification of lost mineral values in mill tailings frequently requires the inspection of hundreds of thousands to millions of particles. The search of these particles can be made automatic by using an electron microprobe. A standard instrument (Cambridge Mark V) was modified by the addition of stepping motors to advance the specimen stage in a controlled manner. The X-ray Signal is monitored continuously by a computer interfaced to the instrument with an analog-to-digital converter. 400,000 particles of a tailings sample can be scanned in about 3 hours. Particles as small as 2 um and containing as little as 3% of a particular element can be detected.

Jan 1, 1982