Search Documents

By Pinakin C. Chaubal

Today?s steel industry is in a vibrant and resurgent mode. This transformation has been in the making for some time now. Over the last few decades, the industry was steadily transforming itself into becoming a high tech industry. New technology was adopted, efficiencies were enhanced, lean manufacturing concepts were brought in and a strong customer focus was developed. Today?s mills employ sophisticated instrumentation, computerized monitoring, on-line smart systems etc. driving processes that are producing at rates of many tons/minute. All this is not possible without judiciously using the latest available technologies in various fields and developing a more sophisticated work force. Prof. Sohn has been a pioneer in driving the concept of process engineering in process metallurgy. In this paper the focus is on some aspects of process engineering ? primarily process modeling - as applied to iron and steelmaking processes. Examples are shown to demonstrate how problems have been addressed. Some thoughts on future directions are presented.

Jan 1, 2006

By Zhucheng Huang, Ronghai ZHONG, Tao Jiang, Jun ZOU

The method of reduction roasting and magnetic separation of low-grade, micro- fine disseminated refractory iron ore following granulation with coal produced unexpected success. Pellets of iron ore with diameter between 3 and 8mm were granulated with coal, bentonite and water. The raw pellets and reduction products were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. Results show uniformly distributed coal powders inside the pellets improved the kinetics of the reduction process and accelerated the reduction rate. Reduction time was higher at temperatures below 890℃, which resulted in the formation of substantial amounts of fayalite. When temperature was increased, micro- fine hematite was then quickly reduced to iron metal and the amount of fayalite decreased sharply. When pellets were reduced at 950℃ for 25min, reduction products with 56.73% metallization rate were obtained. After grinding and magnetic separation, a concentrate with 72.18% Fetot was obtained.

Jan 1, 2015

By Frame Ritzert, Dennis Keller, Vijay Vasudevan, David Arenas

"An investigation was conducted to describe topologically close packed (TCP) phase instability as' a function of composition in the advanced ·Ni-base superalloy Rene N6. TCP phases are detrimental to overfill high-temperature performance of Ni-base superalloys because of their brittle nature and because they deplete the Ni-rich matrix of potent solid solution strengthening elements. Thirty-four variations of polycrystalline .Rene N6 determined from a design-of-experiments approach were cast and homogenized at 13 l5°C for 80 hours followed by exposure at 1093°C for 400 hours to promote TCP formation. The alloys had the following composition ranges in atomic percent: cobalt 10.61 to 16.73, Mo 0.32 to 1.34%, W 1.85 to 2.52%, Re 1.80 to 2.11%, Ta 2.36 to 3.02%, Al 11.90 to 14.75%, and Cr 3.57 to 6.23%. Physical and chemical characteristics of all microstructures obtained were described using various analytical techniques. From these observations, a mathematical description of TCP occurrence (s and P phase) was generated for polycrystalline Rene N6.IntroductionNi-base superalloy single crystals represent the state-of-the-art for turbine engine airfoil application as they offer the best balance of properties to allow for the high operating temperatures required: for efficient engine operation.1 Current trends in alloy design take advantage of improved creep rupture strength with the addition .of higher levels of refractory elements. 2 In .particular, the addition of significantly higher levels of Re in third generation superalloys is key for both microstructural stability and creep rupture strength. 3 While the presence of the refractories is thought to provide strength benefits from solid solution hardening, a tendency for alloy instability in the form of topologically-close-packed (TCP) phases or secondary reaction· zone (SRZ) ·phenomena accompanies the high refractory content. 3 The formation of these phases in sufficient amount is detrimental to the overall high temperature performance of Ni-base superalloys because of their brittle nature and because they deplete the Ni-rich matrix of potent solid solution strengthening elements.4 The tendency for a particular composition to form TCP may not be immediately known since the precipitation of TCP phases in Ni-base superalloys is nucleation controlled, thereby requiring long times at elevated temperatures to precipitate. 5 They preferentially nucleate along the octahedral planes of the Ni-base superalloys, usually in areas of refractory metal enrichment at grain boundaries or inside dendrites.5-6 In Rene N6, two closely related TCP phases, a and P, have been observed.2"

Jan 1, 1998

By H. Shang

The materials science and metallurgical engineering communities have expended enonnous resources in developing high fidelity process models. Exploiting these Models for Predictive Optimization (MPO) and Control (MPC) is a new frontier in Materials Process Engineering that will lead to exceptional process perfonnance. This paper will begin with a short survey of the development of high quality process models available in the literature and a discussion of how these could be used to improve process operation. A summary of the current "state-of-the-art" in process automation technologies and the traditional framework in which these technologies are deployed will be presented. An illustration of the use of MPO in process design and operations will be presented for the continuous casting of steel. In addition, a simple run-out table simulation will be used to demonstrate the power of the MPC technique.

Jan 1, 2003

By Lin Li, Wen Shi, Hua Wang

"Specimens of the ultra-low carbon bake hardening steel were soaked for 1 min to 5 min, and then cooled by water quenching. The internal friction experiments were carried out to detect the spectra of the specimens. Results show that Snoek peaks are present in all the specimens, however, an obvious Snoek-Koster peak is found only in the 5 min-annealed specimen. Besides, tensile results indicate that the bake hardening values increase with the annealing time prolonging from 1 min to 3 min, but decrease as the annealing time prolongs further to 5 min. The solute distributions in the specimens were characterized by three dimensional atom probe. Some segregated C and V are found in the 1 min-annealed specimen, and the C and V contents decrease as annealing time prolongs to 5 min.1. IntroductionAs an excellent member of automotive body panel materials, various types of bake hardening (BH) steels have been developed since 1980s. Bake hardening property, as one of the most important mechanical properties, has been studied by many researchers [ 1-5]. As is known, BH phenomenon is generally controlled by the interaction between solute C and dislocations. The Snoek peak of internal friction (IF) is very popular in the investigation of solute C [6-9]. However, result of internal friction cannot suggest the distribution pattern of solute C as well as its influence on BH phenomenon.Three dimensional atom probe (3DAP) can diagnose solute element atoms as well as nano-sized precipitates, and it is the only instrument that currently can identify the identities of individual atoms in a material and measure their spatial coordinates with the resolution close to 0.3 nm [10]. There have been a number of studies about using 3DAP to detect solute elements as well as nanometer sized precipitates [11-19]. For example, Hono et al. [16] used 3DAP to determine the solute elements in an age-hardened Mg-Ca-Zn alloy, and they also obtained the distribution patterns of the observed elements."

Jan 1, 2011

By H. Cui

Rapid technological development has caused an increase in the demand for rare earths. Ancylite, a strontium rare earth carbonate, is a potentially significant source of rare earths. In this research paper, essential aspects of the magnetic separation and flotation processes for Bear Lodge ore are presented. A flowsheet is proposed based on an optimization of the variables and flotation simulation. The economic feasibility of the proposed processing operation is analyzed.

By K. Osseo-Asare

Third phase formation, the separation of a solvent extraction organic phase into two liquids, is generally attributed to the limited solubility of the extracted complexes in the hydrocarbon diluents. Much of the research on third phase fomiation, therefore, emphasizes experiments designed to establish the stoichiometry of the species responsible for the limited solubility. This work offers a different approach, based on the recognition that the solvent extraction third phase, in fact, corresponds to the middle phase in a microemulsion fluid system. Using the tri-n-butylphosphate (TBP)-diluent-water-electrolyte system as a model system, current concepts of microemulsion phase behavior are utilized to develop a general framework for interpreting and predicting the patterns of phase behavior in solvent extraction systems.

Jan 1, 1999

By Fan Jiang, Haigang Wang, Shi Liu

"This paper describes several applications of Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) in gassolid two phase flows. A new image reconstruction algorithm was evaluated by both simulation and experiments. It is then applied to the online measurement of solids distributions in square circulating fluidized beds (CFBs) and good results were obtained. From the measurement of solids distributions in the bottom zone of a CFB, a bubbly fluidization pattern is identified. A cross-correlation technique was combined with the solids concentration measurements to obtain the flow rate through the dip leg of the cyclone, i.e. the circulating rate of a test CFB. The same· technique was applied in a dense phase pneumatic transport pipe provides the solids concentration, and the flow rate of a wavy gas-solids flow.IntroductionElectrical capacitance tomography (ECT) has been developed for imaging multiphase distributions in the 90's of the ·last century. It is a non-intrusive method. The principle of ECT can be firefly described as follows:Firstly ECT uses a number of electrodes to surround the measuring zone, depicted by Fig. I. The capacitances between the electrodes are measured in turn and an array C is obtained that contains a total number of m independently measured capacitances. Meanwhile the measuring zone is virtually divided into a grid of n pixels, represented by an array G, named the image vector, the gray level of each pixel represents the local value of the concentration of the material. As the material distribution will be reflected by the capacitances between each pair of electrodes, such distributions can be reconstructed according to the measured capacitance, a process called image reconstruction. A common image reconstruction method is called linear-backprojection (LBP). It linearize the relationship between the dielectric distributions in the measuring zone and the capacitances between the electrodes as the following:"

Jan 1, 2004

By K. Osseo-Asare

"The molecular structural and solution chemical characteristics that underlie the surface activity of solvent extraction reagents are highlighted, with particular emphasis on the tendency towards reverse micelle and microemulsion formation. The physicochemical factors that lead to microemulsion-enhanced solvent extraction with chelating extractants are elucidated. Membrane-based contactor systems are described which are uniquely suited for enhanced solvent extraction with microemulsions. The possibility of combining solvent extraction with microemulsion-mediated materials synthesis is discussed. IntroductionThe discovery of new selective extractants has resulted in major breakthroughs which have helped to establish solvent extraction as a versatile separation technology (1-3). A complementary strategy towards new process development is to seek new ways of using the available reagents. This paper explores this second approach. From a molecular structural standpoint, an extractant may be viewed in terms of two components: a polar functional group and a hydrocarbon radical. In the conventional view of solvent extraction, this molecular structure serves two main purposes: The polar functional group provides the binding sites for complexation of metal ions, while the organic group is needed to render the resulting metal-extractant complex organic-soluble. But are these the only properties of the organic and the polar groups that are relevant to the solvent extraction process?In this paper, attention is directed to the fact that solvent extraction reagents possess the molecular structures of amphiphiIes; that is, they are characterized by the presence of spatially separated hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups on the same molecule. A case is made for the view that this amphiphilicity offers interesting opportunities to develop new separation processes which collectively may be described as enhanced solvent extraction (4-6)."

Jan 1, 1996

By Qiang Zhong, Bin Xu, Qian Li, Yongbin Yang, Tao Jiang

Viscosity of slag determines the production efficiency, energy consumption and distribution of elements between metal and slag, which is very important for pyrometallurgy. Slag of goldantimony ore blast furnace smelting has seldom been studied. In this paper, the viscosities of gold-antimony ore smelting slags of different composition have been studied by the rotating cylinder method. The results showed that, for a slag of 38.95% SiO2, 16.17% CaO, 25.97% FeO, 10.25% Al2O3, 5.17% MgO, the viscosity can be decreased by reducing 3.24%-8.5% SiO2 or increasing 3.31%-9.56% CaO content. Complex SixOy z- from SiO2 acts as the main cause for the high viscosity in a slag of high SiO2. The increasing of CaO causes the decreasing of the amount of SixOy z- and the O2- dissociated from CaO breaks the complex SixOy z-, which can decrease the viscosity. Viscosity of different composition slag in the appropriate range temperature can be calculated from the Arrhenius equation.

Jan 1, 2015

By Jorge Alberto Soares Tenório

Household zinc based batteries contain some heavy metals such as zinc, manganese and mercury. There is a large effort from manufacturers in order to eliminate the last one. As a municipal waste, the disposal of batteries has become an increasing worry. The aim of the present work was to characterize dry batteries scraps, and establish a flowsheet for their processing. This was done using unit operations of mineral processing and parameters and yields of each stage have been defined. Such procedures have been chosen due to their low cost. The operations were hammer mill grinding, size separation, magnetic separation and specific weight separation in water. The characterization step was done through chemical analysis and x-ray difiactometry. After size classification, it was verified that 76.6% of the total amount of zinc was over 1.70mm. This fiaction was constituted basically of zinc and some coarse pieces from the steel body, paper and plastics. This fraction was submitted to magnetic separation followed by specific weight separation in water. A visual examination showed that during the grinding process, graphite was concentrated in the finer fractions. Manganese concentration in the fractions over 6,35mm was less than 2%. This means that there was low contamination by the paste in this fraction. It was due to the entrapment of the paste by steel scraps (from the body) and zinc (from the cup) during grinding.

Jan 1, 1999

By F. E. Brinckman, G. J. Olson, D. Johnsonbaugh, T. K. Trout

"Microbiological metal recovery is an emerging technology likely to play an increasing role in commercial ore leaching, metal removal from process and waste streams, and perhaps ultimately in processing to yield metal products in specified forms or oxidation states. We are studying the potential for using microorganisms for the recovery of elements important to emerging materials technologies and for which domestic supplies are limited and/or low grade. Examples to be discussed include the bioaccumulation of yttrium and gallium. These elements are important in the production of new superconductor and semiconductor materials. However, limited domestic reserves and technologies for their recovery may cause supply problems. Microbiological processes may offer new techniques for recovery of these and other strategic elements.IntroductionMicroorganisms in ore leachingMicroorganisms assist in the commercial leaching of copper and uranium from low grade ores (1,2) and recently have been shown to have immediate commercial potential for the pretreatment of refractory gold ores to increase the gold-cyanide recovery yield (3). Copper bioleaching is the best known example of biotechnology applied to metal recovery. Copper can be recovered by commercial leaching of huge piles or dumps of low grade sulfidic ores and waste materials, which are not otherwise processable. Microbial activity in the leach dump environment oxidizes metal sulfides to soluble metal sulfates:"

Jan 1, 1988

By Guy L. Fredrickson

A modified transpiration reactor was used to measure the composition of the equilibrium gas phase formed above compounds in the Hg-O-S system at high temperatures (600 to 900K). A thermodynamic database {(AGo°f AH°t. AS°t)} for-HgO, HgS, HgSO4, Hg2SO4, HgSO4?HgO, and HgSO4?2HgO was developed based on the experimental results. Prior to this study, only estimated data were available in the literature for the sulfates and oxysulfates at temperatures above 298K. A series of vapor pressure' stability diagrams were constructed from 473 to 973K with isobars of Hg(g), HgO(g), S2(g), and SO3(g). These diagrams were found to be significantly different than those available previously and do provide insight to the phase relations of importance during the thermal processing of Hg-containing wastes. The thermodynamic results were used to conduct a series of Gibbs energy minimization calculations for a thermal processor' afterburner system for the treatment of HgS-containing wastes. The retention of Hg in the discharge calcine was examined as a function of temperature and excess air. Hg was found to report to the calcine as HgSO4, Hg2SO4, or HgSO4 HgO depending on the process conditions, and Hg retention occurs at temperatures as high as 930K. The precipitation of Hg-containing phases from cooled afterburner discharge gas starts at approximately 900K and the cooling of the gas an additional 30K (to 870K) results in over 50% of the Hg being preCipitated as HgS04?HgO. It was also determined that for small amounts of Hg present in sulfide concentrates during roasting, the Hg will be retained as HgSO4 or HgSO4?HgO at temperatures as high as 870K.

Jan 1, 1996

By Shilai Yuan, Huimin Lu, Liyuan Zhao, Zhijiang Gao

"A purification process was developed to removal impurity element boron from metallurgical grade silicon by electromagnetic induction slag melting. Vacuum melting furnace was used to purify boron in both Al2O3-MgO-CaO-SiO2 slag system and Al2O3-CaO-SiO2 slag system. The relationship between different slag chemistry and the removal of boron in silicon were studied using Back Propagation (BP) Neural Network model. The best slag chemistry for the removal of boron was predicted by Genetic Algorithm (GA) contributed by the use of Matlab. The results show that the mass fraction of Boron in silicon is reduced from 11.7496×10-6 to 2.3259×10-6 after slag melting in 28.96%Al2O3-3.43%MgO-36.24%CaO-31.37%SiO2 slag system. The relative error obtained with GA-BP Neural Network model was below 0.35%.IntroductionSolar energy, due to its low green house gas emissions, has been paid great attention. Accordingly, the demand for solar grade silicon (SoG-Si) has been growing rapidly. The quest for developing a low-cost method of producing SoG-Si has been moving forward in the last decade. Refining of metallurgical-grade silicon (MG-Si) attracts research interest due to its low material and energy costs, and more environmentally friendly technology in comparison to the traditional Simens process. As such, impurity elements in MG-Si must be removed to low levels for the photovoltaics (PV) cell to operate at optimum efficiency. Most impurities in metallurgical-grade silicon (MG-Si), especially metal elements, can be separated by directional solidification and the zone refining plasma-arc method [1, 2]. The main focus in refining MG-Si to SoG-Si is on the impurities which are the most difficult to remove. Boron has relatively high segregation coefficients (KB=0.8, concentration of Boron in solid silicon divided by its concentration in liquid silicon) [3] and higher vapor tension (the saturated vapor pressure of boron and silicon are 6.78×10-7 Pa and 0.4 Pa, respectively). The vacuum melting and directional solidification methods hence have no effects on boron removal.Slag refining involves melting MG-Si in the presence of a flux to produce a slag phase that can take up the impurity elements. The mechanism of slag refining is considered to include two main steps: the oxidation of boron and the absorption of boron oxide by slag materials. The oxidation of boron, described by the oxygen potential (PO2), resulting from the equilibrium Si and SiO2. The absorption of boron oxide, described as the slag basicity, is interpreted as expected to facilitate their extraction to alkali and alkali-earth oxides in the slag phase. Thus, effective removal may be obtained for a certain slag composition. Researchers [4-5] examined the effect of boron removal in CaO-SiO2 based ternary systems and showed that the addition of excess CaO can decrease the activity of SiO2. Researchers [6-8] studied the boron behaviors in CaO-SiO2-Al2O3, CaO-SiO2-Na2O, Al2O3-BaO-SiO2, CaO-SiO2-Li2O and Al2O3-CaO-MgO-SiO2 slag systems by adding boron in the silicon to a degree. Li2O, Na2O, MgO and BaO are thought to be associated with B2O3."

Jan 1, 2014

By Christopher B. Vierrether

Reflected light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and electron microprobe analysis have been used to determine the mineralogy, phase percentages, grain sizes, textures, and partitioning of cobalt and nickel in two cobalt-nickel rich mattes. These mattes were prepared by submerged bath smelting from a flotation cobalt-nickel concentrate containing 4.8% cobalt and 5.1% nickel. The concentrate was derived from lead-zinc-copper ores of the Viburnum Trend, southeast Missouri. Eleven discrete phases have been distinguished in the matte samples, three of which contain significant cobalt and nickel. The phases are cobaltpentlandite ((Co,Ni,Fe)9S8), cobalt-bearing marmatite ((Co,Fe,Zn)S), shandite (Ni3Pb2S2), bornite (Cu5FeS4), galena (PbS), magnetite (Fe3O4), pyrrhotite ((Co,Ni,Cu,Fe)1_xS), chalcocite (Cu2S), CuPbS phase, metallic copper, and metallic silver. Cobaltpentlandite and cobalt-bearing marmatite- occur in coarse grains (50 µm) that would separate readily during grinding, but shandite contains small (5 - 10um), abundant inclusions of pyrrhotite and bornite.. Some mineralogical variations between the two matte samples were due to differing degrees of oxidation during smelting,

Jan 1, 1988

By Sang-Beom Lee

For thermodynamic prediction, the deoxidation equilibrium of aluminum in Fe-36%Ni alloy was studied with a cold crucible under Ar gas atmosphere at 1773K. For the deoxidation reaction in liquid Fe-36%Ni base, i.e.: A12O3(s) = 2A1 + 3O The interaction parameters and the equilibrium constant between aluminum and oxygen in liquid Fe-36%Ni alloy are given in the following: eo Al = -3.8, roA1=0.9, eAl° = -6.4, rAl° = 700, rAIAIo = 3.1, roA1o = 833 within the composition range of [Al] < 1 mass%. The temperature dependence of the equilibrium constant was obtained in the range of 1773K < T < 1973K by using reported data and present results as follows: log KAo= 0.58-24463.7 / T The deoxidation equilibrium with aluminum in Fe-36%Ni could be thermodynamically well described in the range up [Al] < 1 mass% with first and second order interaction parameters as well as the equilibrium constant determined in this study.

Jan 1, 2002

By Renato G. Bautista

The chemistry of the separation of metals from each other and from the other undesirable components involve multiple simultaneous chemical reactions. In the case of leaching, the heterogeneous chemical reactions between the solid and the liquid phase may be limited to a few reactions. In the homogeneous liquid phase, the number of simultaneous chemical reactions could be double or triple that of the number of heterogeneous reactions:. The rate of dissolution becomes very dependent on the changing concentrations of the significant chemical species taking part in the multiple reactions in both the heterogenous and homogeneous phase. The rate expression developed for the process must take into account the mechanism of chemical reactions in order to best represent the actual process. This paper also examine the role of mass transfer with chemical reaction in the develpoment of the rate equations for dissolution, liquid-liquid extraction, membrane separation, precipitation, and electrodeposition.

Jan 1, 1996

By T. Kimura, H. Ohba

"Much effort has been made to reduce the energy requirement in zinc electrowinning. In order to keep energy consumption low, either to make cell voltage low or current .efficiency high is necessary. Decrease of cell voltage practically depends on how to reduce ohmic resistance in the electrolyte and the anode crust. To realize these, new concept was proposed and the pilot plant has been operated. The space between a cathode and an anode is halved by utilizing the frame insulator. With these frames the anodes and cathodes compose of a unit of electrodes, and this unit is handled by newly designed electrode handling machine (E.H.M.). The process includes lifting up electrodes, expanding the space between a cathode and an anode, cleaning them, stripping the deposited zinc and returning the unit to the cell. As a result, cell voltage is kept as low as calculated and predictable energy reduction has been achieved. IntroductionIn the recent trend of a rapid appreciation of the Japanese yen, Akita Zinc Refinery of Mitsubishi Metal Corporation has been confronted by problems of relatively high operating costs. In order to compete with other overseas zinc refineries, it is necessary to reduce the cost of zinc production, especially the cost of electric power which now accounts for .up to 35 % of the entire cost of production. Three fourth of the electric power used at Akita Zinc Refinery is for the electrolysis. Therefore it is extremely important to reduce the cost of electrolysis.There are two possible measures for solving the problem; one is to use more nighttime electricity taking the advantage of its inexpensive power price, and the other is to reduce electric power consumption.As a part of a rationalization plan carried out in 1986, Akita Zinc Refinery increased the number of operating cells. As a result, when nighttime electricity is used, the silicone rectifier has been able to operate at full capacity. Moreover, by new schemes of ""increase of area for electrodeposition by ralslng the liquid level of electrolyte"" and ""increase of the number of electrodes in each cell"", current density could be lowered and as a result, the electric power consumption has been improved. In order to raise nighttime ratio even higher, installation of an additional rectifier and cells would be required."

Jan 1, 1988

By Larry G. Twidwell

The removal of dissolved arsenic from mine waste waters utilizing a lime/phosphate precipitation technique has been studied on a laboratory scale at Montana Tech of The University of Montana and on a pilot scale at MSE Technology Applications as a wastewater treatment process potentially capable of removing dissolved arsenic to <50 µg/L. Arsenic bearing lime and lime/phosphate slurries were subjected to laboratory extended-time air-sparged aging for over four years. The lime slurries released their arsenic back into solution in a relatively short period of time, whereas the lime/phosphate slurries showed limited release of arsenic. The developed process has been pilot scale tested by MSE-TA for the EPA Mine Waste Technology Program on three waters, ASARCO smelter blowdown water, ASARCO thickener overflow water, and Mineral Hill Mine groundwater. The laboratory study results will be presented and discussed in this presentation. The pilot scale results will be presented and discussed in a companion presentation. Stability, Aging, Apatite, Johnbaumite

Jan 1, 2005

By C. Acuna

The standard procedure of fire refining consists of sulphur removal via air injected through tuyeres, arsenic slagging via soda-lime flux and oxygen reduction by air or oxygen deficient air or a steam fuel mixtures. The use of porous plugs to stir with an inert gas has been mainly considered as a surface renewing agent that increases the product quality and shorten the refining cycle. In the present study the effect of the bottom stirring by nitrogen gas injection through porous plugs for the treatment of the crude copper in the range of 400-150 ppm sulphur, 3,000?2,000 ppm arsenic and 14,000-7,000 ppm oxygen content was investigated. The combined effect stirring-reducing, by the use of air or a steam fuel mixtures through tuyeres for oxygen removal, follows a kinetics of first order where the constant, K, can be represented by the following polynomial expression: K = A .* R2 + B * R + C Where A, Band C are constants that depend on the nitrogen flow rate and R is the air-fuel ratio or the steam-fuel used in the reducing step. Depending on the optimization of the flow of nitrogen and the air-fuel or steam-fuel mixture and only if just the oxidation, complexing and reducing steps are considered, the process cycle might be shortened by 45%.

Jan 1, 2003