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By O. A. Ogunseitan

The contamination of aquatic ecosystems by mercury wastes is one of the most serious forms of environmental pollution associated with the metal mining and electrochemical industries. The transformation of inorganic mercury to alkylated species is a reversible bacterially-mediated process. The production of methylated mercury is of ?major public health and eco-toxicological concern because these forms of mercury are highly toxic ?and they bioaccumulate in aquatic organisms. We determined the response of the genetic determinants of mei:cury transrormation by Pseudomonas species (that predominate in contaminated soils and sediments), to the concentration and species? or available mercurfiations. By combining selective isolation and gene. ?probe techniques, the intrinsic genetic potential for mercury detoxification in a contaminated environment ?can be estimated. We determined that genetic units required for mericury volatilization (merA ?for mercuric reductase) are naturally amplified in response to mercury. Mercury-resistant bacteria that tolerate up to 100 ug Hg(Il)/ml of medium contain about 10 times more DNA fragments encoding merA than in unadapted bacteria. The exposure of bacteria to methylated.Hg (10 ug/ml lake water) produced increases (up to 10 times) in .genetic units, and higher levels of genetic expression (up to 50 times) per ml of lake water for the mercury reductase system, than on-induced lake water. The findings suggest that in environments where methylated Hg may accumulate as a result of bacterial activity, the reverse reaction which leads to the removal of mercury through volatilization from the system, may be achieved by inducing genetic ?amplification and expression of the mercuric reductase gene system.

Jan 1, 1991

By Anna Wasilkowska

The study concentrates on the effects exerted by microstructure, deformation history and uniaxial stress conditions (temperature, stress state, strain rate) on the mechanical properties offerritic TRIP-aided steels for automotive applications. In low-alloyed TRIP-steels it is quite difficult to separate the effect of the austenite to martensite phase transformation from the influence of the ferritic matrix contributing to the yield stress and uniform elongation. Investigation of transformation kinetics of retained austenite as a function of the deformation temperature show that using the parameter k to characterize the retained austenite stability allows to identify regious of different temperature sensitivity separated by a transition temperature of 10±5°C. The observed low strain-rate sensitivity of the flow stress is an intrinsic property of the ferritix matrix and points to defomtation governed by slip. The ultimate tensile strength is much stronger affected by temperature than the yield stress. The influence of the temperature on the elongation is complex, because of the heating of the specimens by 60-l20°C at moderate and high strain rates. The increase of the total strain can be understood in terms of thermal softening of the ferrite. On the other hand, the steep increase of the stress during dynamic testing is an effect of accommodated elastic and plastic strains in the matrix. The strain- hardening exponent is dependent on the conditions imposed during testing. The martensite transfomtation rate is lower and the critical stress for martensite nucleation is much higher under compression compared to tensile loading. In secondary tensile tests, the yield stress increases steeply, and the ultimate tensile strength and the total elongation depend linearly on the amount of pre-straining. The results confirm that in the range of 8=10-4 s-l the TRIP-effect governs room temperature plasticity. Keywords: TRIP-steels, mechanical properties, strain rate sensitivity, temperature sensitivity, austenite stability

Jan 1, 2003

By Hongbo Yang, Tongbo Zhang, Ting Huang, Jingshe Li, Fangfang Song

"Liquid core length is a very important parameter of the process of continuous casting, which directly reflects the cooling status in secondary cooling zone and solidification rate of the slab. In this paper, the billet caster in some steel plant in China was chosen as the prototype of simulating. A numerical simulating model for calculating the liquid core length of continuous casting billet was built by ProCAST software, which was verified reasonable and accurate by pin-shooting technique. Based on the model, the relationships between casting speed, casting temperature and liquid core length of casting billet were found, which was very practically useful for the workers on sit to improve casting billet quality. IntroductionContinuous casting process developed very rapidly because of the high metal yield, energy saving, and low-cost 111• And the quality requirements of continuous casting billet for customers became higher and higher with the fast development of economic121• Internal defect usually is the major quality problem for continuous casting billet[3•61 , which is influenced by the solidification process of casting billet, especially the solidification process of liquid core17•81 • So it is very important to study on the relationship between casting parameters and the liquid core length which means the distance between the crystallizer meniscus and the casting billet solidification end-point. In practical production process, the workers usually control the quality of casting billet according to the liquid core length."

Jan 1, 2013

By C. J. Beyke

The U.S. Bureau of Mines has developed a process for the selective recovery of Pb metal from a mixed Pb-Zn concentrate. The concentrate was leached in recycled H2SiF6 at atmospheric pressure and 95° C with a redox potential of 570 mV (Eh). Eighty-five pct of the Pb was selectively leached from the concentrate while 87 pct of the Zn remained in the residue. Pressure leaching of the concentrate was slightly less successful, with 78 pct of the Pb leaching from the concentrate and 80 pct of the Zn remaining in the residue. Pure Pb metal was successfully electrowon from a purified PbSiF6-H2SiF6 solution with 96 pct current efficiency and 0.69-kW.h/kg energy consumption.

Jan 1, 1991

By K. Adham

For use in many existing and emerging applications, the purification of natural graphite is required to achieve +99.9% carbon content with minimum metallic impurities. Currently, the hydrofluoric acid process is used, which carries certain environmental and workplace health and safety impacts. While thermal purification of graphite at temperatures over 2500 °C is a known alternative, such high-temperature furnaces are expensive to build and operate. Using chlorine at lower temperatures to purify graphite is also known and patented, but is currently limited to treating solid synthetic graphite shapes in small-scale batch furnaces. Chlorine treatment of natural flake graphite resources can be used commercially, if certain drawbacks are addressed through process improvements that can be helped with the use of fluidized bed reactor technology.

By Hector Carreon

This paper presents experimental data for the magnetic field produced by thermoelectric currents around uncracked hard-alpha inclusions in a Ti?6Al?4V specimen under external thermal excitation for different nitrogen content ranging from 1.6% to 5.9%. According to our preliminary results, the magnetic flux density measurements were found to be rather sensitive to changes in nitrogen content with the exception of the intrinsic material background magnetic signal that affected deeply the detectability of inclusions and imperfections in non-contacting thermoelectric measurements. Hopefully, these preliminary results can help identify a non-destructive test method that can detect material inclusions with a level of nitrogen that could be detrimental to Ti?6Al?4V alloy components.

Jan 1, 2009

By Nathalie Neveux

For the first time, dehydrated ferrous sulfate was successfully used for the dry synthesis of potassium ferrate. In addition, ferrate ion is stabilized as a solid solution where hexavalent iron is partially substituted by S(V1) leading to a sulfato-ferrate having the following formula K2(Fe,S)04. This substance has an efficient life time of about six months. Ferrate ion is a powerful oxidant ( EO = 2.2V ), a bactericidal agent and possesses coagulant, flocculant properties. Its reduction generates nascent oxygen, hydroxyl groups and Fe(OH)3. Alkali metal ferrate is probably the future global agent for water treatment. Applications of this material in the field of urban and industrial effluents treatment have been investigated. Heavy metals cations such as Cu, Cd, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, ... were successfully removed. The results of sulfato-ferrate use for cyanide destruction, decrease in COD, soil, discoloration of pulp and paper effluents will be summarized.

Jan 1, 1999

By Luben Xie, Lin Hu, Qiang Wang, Min Gan, Tao Jiang, Wenqi Li, Yi Wang, Xiaohui Fan

"The mineralization behaviors of typical fluxes are studied by investigating the microstructures with optical microscope. The results show that the reactions begin with between iron ore and lime, limestone with small particle to form primary liquid. Then coarse limestone, dolomite and serpentine take part in reaction under the action of primary liquid. Limestone is the easiest to mineralization, next dolomite, and the last is serpentine. The higher basicity and smaller fluxes size favor the mineralization process of dolomite and serpentine.IntroductionThe purposes of adding fluxes into sintering are that:(1) to increase the basicity of sinter, so as to reduce even eliminate addition fluxes into BF(blast furnace) and decrease the coke ratio of BF[1,2]. (2) to decrease the melting point of sintering mixture to ensure sintering can be carried out at a lower temperature and reduce the energy consumption. (3) to improve the qualities of sinter by forming binding phase with iron ore fines [3].Flux is another significant component for sinter besides iron ore, especially for high basicity sinter[4]. The proportion of flux is usually higher than 10% in sinter mixture(excluding return mine).There were many reports about the influence of the flux types on sintering, such as limestone, dolomite, lime and so on[5-7]. It is very important to choose suitable fluxes for iron ore sintering. Although the effect of flux size on sintering also has been researched, the mineralization behaviors of the fluxes in the sintering process has not been illuminated. The paper will study the mineralization behavior of fluxes in sintering."

Jan 1, 2011

By Qingchun Yu, Bin Yang, Yong Deng, Heng Xiong, Fei Wang, Minxiu Chen

"Metal aluminum produced by non-electrolysis process received much attention due to its lower energy consumption. In this paper, carbothermic reduction and carbothermic-chlorination of alumina in normal pressure and vacuum were studied. The products were examined by means of XRD, EDS and SEM. During the carbothermic reduction process using carbon reductant in normal pressure, no metal aluminum was found. However, when coal was used as reductant, a mixture containing metallic aluminum, A14C3, and silicon was obtained, but metallic aluminum couldn't be separated from the mixture. During the carbothermic-chlorination process in vacuum, Al404C and Al4C3 were produced by the reaction between alumina and carbon, and Al Ch gas reacted with Al404C and Al4C3 to produce Al Cl gas. Metallic aluminum was produced due to the disproportionation of A!Cl gas and condensed on the collecting plate. Meanwhile, the initial temperature of carbothermic reduction of alumina reduced in vacuum compared with that in normal pressure.IntroductionIndustrial production of primary aluminum is carried out in alumina cell by the so-called Hall- Heroult process, necessitating the use of very high currents of low voltage. The alumina from which metallic aluminum is gained must be chemically pure, otherwise impure metal results. The main drawbacks of the electrolytic production are its very high energy consumption, the release ofperfluorocarbons, and the high specific C02 emissions [1]. During the past years, there were a lot of attempts to produce metallic aluminum by carbothermic reduction of A1203 [2, 3]. Cox [4] determined the vapor pressure over the A1203-C system and performed X-ray diffraction analysis of condensed products. It was demonstrated that an increase in the carbon content in the system leaded to the sequence of transitions: A1203~Al404C~A1zoc~A14C3 ~AI [5]. In any carbothermic reduction process for aluminum, extremely high temperatures (2000 °C ) were required [6]. In spite of considerable effort, the carbothermic reduction of alumina to aluminum remains a formidable technical challenge, due to the high temperatures required, and to the formation of aluminum carbide and oxycarbide byproducts [7]."

Jan 1, 2013

By K. Adham

"Fluidized beds are utilized in a wide range of high-temperature applications throughout the metals and materials industry. Their main advantage is the fast and uniform heat and mass transfer between the hot combustion gases and the particulate solid feed. A further benefit can be the lowering of the processing plant's energy consumption, through heat recovery from the fluid bed processes used for solids heating. Here, the enhanced energy efficiency of fluidized systems is investigated and the modeling results are discussed for three configurations: the flash tube, the single bubbling bed and the multi-stage fluid bed. Key thermal design aspects of each system are identified based on results from process simulations, in order to benchmark their main operating features and overall energy efficiency. Suitability and applicability of each configuration is also discussed based on a number of process and material property considerations.IntroductionCombustion based heating of particulate solids is commonly done using three different types of fluidized beds. The flash tube (FT) is similar to a hot pneumatic transport system. The single-stage fluidized bed (FB) typically uses in-bed combustion. The multi-stage fluidized bed (MSFB) can have two or more stages stacked into a tower.Flash tube (FT) suspends the incoming solid charge in a high-velocity stream of hot combustion gases. To maintain the solids suspension in the FT, two parameters are required: high velocity for elutriation of the particles and adequate solid-to-gas ratio for avoiding high pressure drops and solids drop-out [l].The fluid bed (FB) works at much lower velocities than the flash tube. Therefore, most of the solids are not conveyed in the gas stream, but are only suspended in a liquid-like manner. At minimum fluidization velocity (Umr), the gas flow exerts just enough force on the solids to keep them suspended in place [2].Multi-stage fluid bed (MSFB) heats up the solids as they are transferred from an upper bed level to a lower one, counter-current to the rising flow of hot gases generated at the lowest stage. As the temperature and volumetric flow of the gases decrease from bottom to the top stage, smaller bed diameters can be used in the energy recovery stages [3]."

Jan 1, 2014

By Sergey Shabala

Green leaf tissues convert solar energy into the energy of chemical bonds of sugar molecules during the process of photosynthesis. The efficiency of this conversion can be much higher than efficiency of any of the currently known silicon-based solar panels. Importantly, vast amounts of CO2 are assimilated during this process. The efficiency of photosynthesis is critically dependent on the availability of a large number of nutrients, among which metal cations such as K, Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, and Ni play a key role. In this paper I summarize basic requirements and major functions for each of these essential nutrients in plant photosynthesis, both at the whole-plant and molecular level. I will talk about how these requirements may be affected by the global climate trends and discuss the prospects of creating artificial photosynthetic “bioreactors” for efficient energy conversion and CO2 assimilation.

Jan 1, 2009

By Byung-Su Kim

The recovery of elemental sulfur from sulfur dioxide has important implications for coal- burning power plants and nonferrous metal smelters. The thermodynamic analyses showed calcium sulfide to be suitable for recovering elemental sulfur from sulfur dioxide. At the temperatures of 1023 to 1153 K under the sulfur dioxide partial pressures of 5.0 - 60.1 kPa, elemental sulfur from sulfur dioxide was recovered by its reaction with calcium sulfide. The kinetics of this reaction were measured at the same conditions using a thermogravimetric analysis technique. This reaction scheme would be attractive if the coproduct calcium sulfate can be reduced to regenerate calcium sulfide. This is the topic of another paper. At 1073 K under the sulfur dioxide partial pressure of 25.8 kPa, 48 % of the original calcium sulfide was converted to calcium sulfate in an hour. Under the same conditions, 55 % of the regenerated calcium sulfide were converted to calcium sulfate in an hour even after third regeneration.

Jan 1, 1999

By E. Açma

Sivas-Divrigi flotation plant has a capacity of 90,000 tpy. Beneficiation of the tailings of iron ore magnetic separator seems to be attractive, because of its Cu, Co, and Ni contents. In the experimental work, sulfidic flotation concentrate is produced from these tailings. A roasting-leaching-H2S precipitation procedure is used to treat this concentrate, containing 0.55% Cu, 0.51% Co, 0.74% Ni, and 0.027% Zn. Sulfatizing roasting is carried out in a rotary furnace at 690°C. Roasted product is leached with 10 gpl HzSOl at 70°C and 30% pulp density. For the precipitation of desired metal, H2S is bubbled through the concentrated solution of repeated leaching, under controlled temperature and pH. Final metal recoveries of 91% Cu, 91% Co, and 50% Ni, and 92% Zn are attained. Roasting gases with their 13% SO2 content are suitable for H2SO4 production and the leach residues can be integrated with the iron ore processing plant as they contain 57.4% Fe and very low non-ferrous metals.

Jan 1, 1993

By Janusz Majta

The aim of this work is to investigate the control of microstructure evolution through variation of particular deformation parameters in the two-phase (intercritical) region. Niobium-microalloyed and low-carbon steels were investigated. A detailed examination of the factors affecting the ferrite microstructures of tested steels indicated that there were distinct advantages of finishing at temperatures in the austenite-ferrite region. The various results of deformation in the two-phase region are presented. Consequently, the influence of the most important process parameters on the microstructure evolution and mechanical response of the material is determined. The prime objective of the realized research work is the determination of relationship between the history of deformation and final product quality i.e. texture and mechanical properties. To reach the objective, the constitutive equations are proposed for modeling the effects of the hot-deformation process occurring in the austenite and austenite-ferrite region of low carbon and microalloyed steels on the mechanical properties of the resulting product. These models link advanced, finite element approaches simulating metal flow and heat transfer during hot-plastic deformation with constitutive equations describing microstructural processes and mechanical properties.

Jan 1, 2003

By Zhihong Liu

In recent years, the removal of arsenic from different types of high arsenic containing materials produced in nonferrous metallurgical processes have been experimentally studied in the complex materials processing research group from Central South University. These materials include arsenic and antimony bearing flue dust, arsenic sulfide residue and arsenate bearing flue dust. The separation of arsenic from other valuable metals was carried out hydrometallurgically; for each type of arsenic bearing material, different processes have been employed individually to remove the arsenic effectively. In this paper, the flowsheets and typical experimental results have been summarized.

By W. Dresler

Design details of a 100 kVA DC electric-arc reduction furnace are described. The furnace is equipped with a 610 mm (24 inch) diameter graphite crucible hearth. A 76 mm (3 inch) diameter top graphite electrode is used as a cathode. The current passes through the bottom of the crucible and is carried to a bottom plate (the anode) by conductive magnesia carbon bricks. The furnace can be operated up to a maximum of 120 V, 1800 A, and presently 100 kW. The start-up operating experiences and metallurgical results of one reduction test with a Montana chromite containing 38% Cr2O3 are discussed.

Jan 1, 1994

The direct removal of lead ions from D2EHPA-kerosene using metallic zinc as the reducing agent was evaluated. The electrochemical process, called galvanic stripping, is a potential alternative stripping technique when standard chemical methods are not adequate. Four parameters found to be important in the rate of lead removal were studied in a factorially designed experiment. The variable evaluated included D2EHPA concentration, temperature, zinc surface area and solution agitation. Temperature and surface area were found to be the most significant, while agitation and D2EHPA concentration had less influence on the reaction. An activation energy of 22.5 Kcal/mole was calculated indicating a chemically-controlled process. The reaction was also sensitive to the concentration of oxygen in the system. The zinc required was considerably in excess of stoichiometry, possibly due to the dissolution and redeposition of lead: In general, the results were encouraging and demonstrated that lead impurities could be removed from D2EHPA using cementation type reactions.

Jan 1, 1995

By Boxun Lu, Juan Wei, Kun Chen, Wanlin Wang, Lejun Zhou

"Slag system is an indispensable part during the continuous casting process, and playing various important roles like absorbing inclusions, modifying heat transfer rate, preventing oxidation of molten steel, etc. to ensure the smooth process and excellent slab quality. However most slags contains more than 8% fluorides which tend to introduce a series of environmental and health problems. This study involves the research of the removal of fluorine through the chemical composition optimization. Through the studies of CCT, DHTT, XRD and SEM, it has been successfully founded that the crystalline phase of Ca11Si4B2O22 discovered in this study shows very similar crystallization property as Cuspidine (Ca4Si2O7F2), which is the most important crystalline phase in the current fluorine bearing slags. Moreover, the optimized free/low fluorine slag shows the opportunity to replace conventional high-fluorine mold slag for casting medium carbon steels that is regarded as the bottleneck of green slag development for continuous casting.IntroductionMold flux has been widely used in continuous casting to control heat transfer, lubricate the strand, absorb inclusions, provide insulation and prevent oxidation of the molten steel[1-3]. It usually contains fluorides, like CaF2, NaF etc., which are used to control the viscosity and solidification temperature of mold fluxes [4-5]. However, the presence of fluoride leads to corrosion of equipment, serious environmental pollution (toxic volatiles and water pollution), and high processing cost of cooling water[6-7]. Therefore, the study of low or free fluorine mold flux is of interest and attracts worldwide attention.S. Y. Choi et al. [4] used B2O3 as a substitute for cuspidine in steel B2PB2) however, B2O3 content was extremely high (up to 30 w%). Other studies have investigated F-free mold flux by adding or optimizing components as MgO, Li2O, B2O3 et al[8-11]. However, most of these focused on the melting and viscosity issues or for low or ultra-low carbon steels, where crystallization tendency is not significantly strong. Very few studies regarding to the development of low/free Fluorine mold flux for casting medium carbon (MC) steels have been conducted, due to the difficulty of the crystallization and heat transfer control without the formation of cuspidine."

Jan 1, 2014

By C. D. Mishra

The recycling potential for any gainful utilisation of the waste products is dictated by their quality, especially the chemical characterisation. The methods commonly used for the analysis of fly ash e.g. wet chemical, AAS, ICP-AES etc are time consuming. The paper describes a rapid XRF-based method for routine analysis of fly ash which involves preparation of local standards, optimisation of sample preparation technique and use of a simple PC-based software to account for interelement effects. The matrix corrected values are found to agree well with the wet chemical data.

Jan 1, 1992

By Hui Zhang

The leaching behavior of palladium powder in aqueous solutions containing NaCI or N'H4Cl was investigated. Cupric ion was used as an oxidant for the dissolution reaction. The effect of a number of leaching parameters such as temperature, concentration, stirring speed and surface area on the leaching rate was studied. The leaching system containing chloride and cupric ion was found to be very effective for the dissolution of metallic palladium. Based on the experimental results the overall leaching rate was believed to be controlled by a chemical reaction step. The dissolution rate of palladium was found to be first order with respect to the concentration of cupric ion and second order with respect to the concentration of chloride.

Jan 1, 1996