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By Tracey Brommer, Britt Elin Gihleengen, Elsa Olivetti, Randolph Kirchain

"Increased demand resulting from the economic and environmental advantages of recycling secondary materials has constrained secondary material supply. As a result of constrained supply, the conventional strategy to maximize recycled content in an individual aluminum alloy must be expanded to maximizing total recycled content in a given production period. This work compares the performance over a two week period of an actual remelter for two strategies; a sequential charge-by-charge optimization framework and an integrated approach that explicitly incorporates the production schedule. Optimizing across the entire two week production is found to increase recycled content and minimize primary and alloying material additions. It is expected that as the scrap material market continues to be constrained by high demand, longer term batch planning strategies that can optimize material allocation will deliver improved performance.IntroductionIntensifying economic and environmental pressure to incorporate secondary aluminum into products is pushing remelters to explore additional strategies and tools to increase recycled content. Aluminum remelters are exploring alternative sources of secondary materials because of constrained secondary material supply and relatively high primary and secondary material cost [1]. Computational models, such as blending models are a tool that could help industrial remelters mitigate supply and cost challenges and thereby increase recycled content. In particular, computational tools can help manage the incorporation of new raw materials of variable quality. Blending models find many industrial applications and have been explored for over sixty years originating with the classic nut-mix problem dating back to 1950’s [2]. Blending models optimize the raw material input to make a desired product subject to a series of constraints such as product specifications and material availability. Deterministic and linear blending model formulations are presently implemented in some industrial aluminum remelters [3]. The primary reluctance of aluminum remelters against computational model implementation is the incapability of their blending models to reflect the intricacy of industrial remelting conditions [4]. For example, to reduce calculation time, industrial aluminum blending models usually optimize a batch plan for a single alloy and are not formulated to optimize several products simultaneously. Since such a model does not include knowledge of subsequent charges in the optimized batch plan, the resulting batch plans tend to deplete the “cleanest” secondary materials leaving the more uncertain and compositionally challenging materials for later charges. As a result, a remelter may override the calculated batch plan or leave certain scrap materials out of the material input to conserve these materials for alternative products scheduled for later production. This work explores an alternative aluminum charge planning tool that can optimize across an extended production schedule and compares it to a heuristic sequential optimization strategy reflecting an industrial remelter."

Jan 1, 2012

By Li Fangi

This paper describes the characteristics and regularities of a process to recover rare earth minerals from Baotou Ore with H-205 collector. H-205 is a kind of hydroxamic acid with amide as a polar group and poly-cycle aromatic hydrocarbon as a non-polar group, having strong ability to capture RE minerals (bastnasite, monazite). When adding a certain dosage of water glass and some other modifying agents, and maintaining pH value between 8.5 and 9.5, RE minerals can be effectively separated from calcium and barium minerals, such as fluorite and barite, etc. Under normal flotation temperature and concentration, when using H-205 to float RE minerals, it needs a bit longer conditioning time (a few minutes longer than that for the conventional collectors). It is also shown that the reagent has the property of resistance to hard water. The laboratory scale and pilot scale tests of the process have been carried out on bulk froth containing RE minerals and fluorite taken from Ore Dressing Plant of Baotou Iron and Steel Company, in both cases, high grade RE concentrates were obtained and the recovery increased remarkably. Therefore, the process has a great practical value.

Jan 1, 1989

By Charles Zimmerman

The Genesis gold mine, owned and operated by Newmont Gold Co., is located in section 31, T36N, R50E within Eureka County, Nevada along the Carlin Trend of sediment-hosted disseminated gold deposits. Mining commenced in 1986 with present mineable and stockpiled reserves listed at 17,711,000 tons of ore averaging 0.073 opt Au, totalling 1.292 million ounces of gold. Ore is primarily hosted within Devonian calcareous siltstones that have been subjected to intensive argillization and silicification episodes. Additional mineralogic and geochemical features of the Genesis ores include enrichment in iron-oxides, kaolinite, arsenic and antimony; the ore zone is relatively depleted in carbonates and sulfides as a result of supergene and hypogene oxidation. Two major structural zones enhanced the permeability of the siltstones and served as the main hydrothermal conduits within the deposit. Prior to the main ore stage, the host rocks were subjected to metasomatic effects caused by emplacement of the Juro-Cretaceous Goldstrike granodiorite pluton and associated dikes and sills. Micron-size gold occurs in clays, micro-crystalline quartz, and in arsenical complexes. Non-oxidized carbonaceous and sulfidic ores and silica-locked ores result in variable preg-robbing and refractory responses during cyanide recovery. Selective mining and milling has resulted in the successful treatment of the Genesis orebody.

Jan 1, 1988

By P. A. Davidson

"We discuss the influence of a static magnetic field on jets, vortices and turbulence. This is particularly relevant to D.C. braking in slab casting. Our main conclusion is that, typically, the magnetic field destroys mechanical energy, via joule dissipation, but is unable to destroy momentum. Rather, it continually rearranges the momentum in such a way that the energy falls.IntroductionIt is well-known that a static magnetic field can suppress motion of a liquid metal. That is to say, movement of the liquid across the magnetic field lines induces a current. This leads to Joule dissipation and the resultant rise in thermal energy is accompanied by a corresponding fall in kinetic energy.This phenomenon has been exploited in a range of metallurgical processes. For example, in the continuous casting of large steel slabs, an intense, static magnetic field is commonly used to suppress motion within the mould. The objective is to keep the free surface of the liquid quiescent, thus avoiding the entrainment of surface debris. In other solidification processes, such as techniques for growing semi-conductor crystals, it is widely believed that natural convection has a detrimental effect on the metallurgical structure of the solid. Again, the imposition of a static magnetic field is seen as one means of suppressing these unwanted motions. Finally, magnetic damping is used in the laboratory measurements of chemical and thermal diffusivities, particularly where solutal or thermal buoyancy can disrupt the measurement technique.In this paper we shall look at the damping of jets, vortices and turbulence. Our aim is to present a unified theoretical framework from which the many published studies may be viewed."

Jan 1, 1999

By K. Lillkung, O. Forsen, J. Aromaa

"The dissolution rates of Pt, Pd and Rh in 250 g/L NaCl solution were calculated from the current densities determined by polarization curves and potentiostatic measurements measured with wire electrodes at atmospheric pressure. The results achieved with the two methods were similar. The dissolution rates at the corrosion potential were in the order of few nanometers per hour. The polarization curves indicated that to achieve dissolution rates required for economical operation on an industrial scale, the samples need to be polarized to higher potentials. When polarized to higher potentials, the metal dissolution rates were in the order of micrometers per hour. As the Tafel slopes of the metal dissolution region are fairly steep, the potential affects the dissolution rate greatly. Based on the activation energies, the dissolution reactions were controlled by a charge transfer step.IntroductionPlatinum group metals (PGM) have some very unique properties such as their inertness, giving excellent corrosion resistance, and a high melting point. At the same time, these factors make the refining of these metals very challenging. The main applications where PGMs are used are different catalytic converters, mostly in automotive catalysts. The used catalysts are also an attractive secondary source of PGMs. The exact concentrations of PGMs in catalysts vary widely depending on the manufacturer, the age and the capacity of the catalyst. The concentration of Pt in a new catalytic converter range from 300 to 1000 ìg/g, Pd from 200 to 800 ìg/g and Rh from 50 to 100 ìg/g [1]. Precious metal catalysts usually consist of a coat of the metal supported on ã- alumina. The recovery of metals from automotive catalysts has received much attention during the last few years [1-3]. In the near future, the use of PGMs in fuel cells is predicted to increase the amount of secondary PGMs available [4]."

Jan 1, 2012

By Yunhua Gan, Xiaowen Chen, Yang Tong

Experimental studies of electro-spraying were carried out using ethanol as fuel in a microcombustor under combined electric field. And the effects of different electro-spraying modes on the combustion efficiency were analyzed. Results showed that when ring electrode potential was invariant, there were four different electro-spraying modes with the variations of nozzle potentials, which were varying with the flow of ethanol. The cone-jet mode was the stablest one during the whole experimental process. The atomized ethanol was ignited and combusted stably near the steel mesh, the combustion efficiency increased firstly and then decreased along with the increasing of the equivalent ratios, reached the maximum values when the equivalent ratio equal to 1.0. And the maximum values were the highest at the cone-jet mode, and the lowest at the pulsed-jet mode.

Jan 1, 2016

By B. Sereda

As it is known the creation and development of new titanic alloys has been problematic up to now. They can be used in aircraft and vehicle construction, shipbuilding and as materials for keeping static loadings in high-temperature environments. In this work the synthesis of various titan aluminides is investigated. Mathematical model of structurization process was done. On the base of retrieved model the mechanisms of structurization in systems Ti + Al and Ti + 3Al was determined. Experimental researches were done at two different modes: burning and thermal spontaneous ignition. The method of retrieving compacted products combusted in SHS conditions (SHS-compacting) was used to gain these intermetallic compounds. The physical and thermal characteristics of technological process and their influence on structurization, homogeneity of structure and porosity of titan aluminides have been simulated and researched. It is established that the SHS-compactizing technology is fully capable of supervising the process of structurizations with the whole complex of advantages and can be applied for receiving qualitative titan aluminides with the set of chemical-physical properties.

Jan 1, 2010

By Riyad N. Ahmad-Bitar, Shadia J. Lkhmayies

"CdSi-xTex thin films were prepared by first producing CdS:In thin films by the spray pyrolysis (SP) technique and then annealing the films in the presence of Te vapor in nitrogen atmosphere. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) measurements showed that the films are polycrystalline with the wurtzite structure. Transmittance measurements were recorded at room temperature in the wavelength range 400-900 nm and used to deduce the absorbance. The first derivative of the absorbance was calculated and used to find the values of the bandgap energy, where more than one bandgap was obtained for each film. These results show that the films are inhomogeneous or the composition differs with location. The photoluminescence (PL) was recorded at T = 60 K and a deconvolution peak fit was performed for each spectrum. The results of the PL spectra are consistent with those obtained from the first derivative and confirm the inhomogeneity of the films.IntroductionPolycrystalline thin film CdS/CdTe solar cells are promising candidates for low cost and high efficiency photovoltaic applications. The CdS/CdTe interface plays an active role and a detailed knowledge of its properties is crucial for thorough understanding of the device. High efficiency devices have been obtained in spite of the large lattice mismatch (9. 7%) between hexagonal CdS and cubic CdTe. Interdiffusion at the CdS/CdTe interface is considered to affect the performance of the devices [1]. The formation of a mixed crystal or a graded layer at the interface causes a reduction in the lattice mismatch at the CdS/CdTe junction [2] and then a reduction in the number of interfacial states and recombination centers, thus enhancing the solar cell performance [3, 4].The objective of this work is to investigate the transmittance, photoluminescence (PL) and structure of CdSi-xTex thin films prepared by annealing the spray-deposited CdS:In thin films in the presence of tellurium vapor. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used for exploring the structure. Transmittance is used to deduce the absorbance where its first derivative was used to find the bandgap energy which varies with composition. The evolution of the PL spectra as functions of tellurium concentration was evident and it confirmed the inhomogeneities of the films."

Jan 1, 2011

By F. Shen

Qualitative and quantitative results obtained during the physical modeling of the molten aluminum flow in a tundish using an aqueous system are presented. Surface tuft, free-surface powder and laser sheet visualization techniques were utilized for qualitative studies, whereas laser Doppler velocimetry was used to elucidate the 3-D flow regimes quantitatively. The results of the study are used for validation of the CFD codes, and to explore the effect of the alterations below the nozzle in order to: (1) decrease turbulence levels, and (2) collect the inclusions. Near the nozzle, the interaction of the impinging jet and the inclined walls gives rise to vortex structures. Downstream of the nozzle, two counter-rotating secondary cells diminish in strength. As flow turns through the bend, a separation region is created. The flow heading into the closed duct is seen to be nonsymmetric. A video tape highlighting the major findings is presented.

Jan 1, 1993

By L. A. Neumeier

The Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior, is investigating the feasibility of partitioning complex sulfide minerals to simpler sulfide .phases by sulfldation reactions. Such partitioning can afford opportunity to improve selective extraction of mineral constituents of value. This report describes initial research involving sulfidation partitioning of chalcopyrite concentrates. Small chalcopyrite samples were sulfidized with elemental sulfur in glass capsules sealed after evacuating and backfilling with helium, by heating for 1 to 24 h at specific temperatures in the range of 250° to 500° C. which extends from below to above the boiling point of sulfur (-445° C). Above the boiling point of sulfur, the overall reaction with adequate sulfur (13.9 wt pct of CuFeS2) is 5CuFeS2 + 4S g ? Cu5FeS6 + 4FeS2.

Jan 1, 1989

By Yuanbo Zhang, Zhixiong You, Li Qin, Guanghui Li, Tao Jiang

Low-grade manganese oxide ore is generally characterized by high iron content. In this work, sulfidation roasting of an iron-rich manganese oxide ore with elemental sulfur was characterized. The experimental results indicated that manganese dioxide can be selectively reduced over iron oxide by using elemental sulfur. The manganese phases in roasted product included low-valence manganese oxide, manganese sulfide and manganese sulfate, while those of iron mainly depended on the sulfur addition. Iron oxide would only be reduced or sulfidized at larger sulfur additions. The effect of roasting temperature and S/Mn mole ratio on the phase transformations was also investigated; extractions of Mn/Fe by sulfuric acid were evaluated. An extraction of Mn greater than 95% was obtained while that of Fe was controlled less than 10% under the optimal conditions.

Jan 1, 2016

By Guanghui Li, Xuling Chen, Zhiyun Ji, Min Gan, Tao Jiang, Xiaohui Fan, Zhiyuan Yu

With the increase of proportion of biochar(without modified) replacing coke breeze, the physical strength of sinter decreases due to the faster burning speed of biochar. An investigation upon passivating biochar with boric acid was then conducted to strengthen sintering in this paper. A layer of thin film of B2O3 distributed in the surface of biochar was observed, which could reduce the contact between reaction gas and biochar. So the burning speed of biochar was decreased properly after passivation, and the combustion efficiency increased due to the inhibition of carbon gasification. The comprehensive effects of above changes could increase the maximum temperature of sintering bed, which facilitated to the mineralization of sintering mixtures. Eventually sintering indices got reinforced. Thus the indices of sinter as applying 40% passivated biochar were comparable with that of 100% coke breeze.

Jan 1, 2015

By Jose F. Hevia

This study is part of a broader project on the hydrothermal conversion of copper concentrates to metallic copper by solid state reactions in which the copper remains localized in the solid phases. The kinetics of the solid/solid hydrothermal hydrogen reduction of tenorite (CuO) and cuprite (Cu,O) to metallic copper are presented. After an induction period, the process is governed initially by a nucleation step followed by rapid solid state reduction. Nucleation promoter agents decrease the induction period and control the particle morphology. Separate nucleation and reduction rate processes have been identified. Following nucleation, reduction follows a shrinking core process.

Jan 1, 1994

By Tsutomu Yamamura

The electrolytic reduction mechanism of rare-earth chlorides such as LaCl3, CeCl3, NdCl3, ` SmCl3 and DyCl3 in alkali chloride baths has been investigated in NaCl, KCI and eutectic LiCI- KCI by means of electrochemical transient methods. The thermodynamic behaviors of rare-earth containing species have been discussed in the frame of Electrode potential - P02- diagram. Low current efficiency found in the case of Nd electro-winning has been attributed to the dissolution of Nd into the bath. The analyses of electrochemical measurement required the elucidation of the effects of the factors such as under-potential deposition, metal dissolution, moisture and oxygen partial pressure.

Jan 1, 2003

By Akihide Nagao

The behavior of impurity hydrogen that is contained in starting material or picked up during processing has been little investigated up to now. The hydrogen microprint technique is applied to determine the microscopic location of impurity hydrogen during deformation in aluminum without hydrogen charging. Three kinds of pure aluminum of 99.99% are prepared, in which hydrogen content is varied by changing the atmosphere when they are melted and heat-treated. After rolling, tensile specimens with a gage size of 4 x 4 rnm and 0.5 mm in thickness are stamped out from these three kinds of aluminum sheets. These specimens are covered with a liquid nuclear emulsion of silver bromide crystals, stretched by 5,10 and 15 percent plastic strain or fractured, developed and fixed. SEM micrographs reveal a number of silver particles on the slip lines and on the grain boundaries. Also shown is that the more hydrogen present in the specimen, the more silver grains appear on the slip limes and on the grain boundaries. Consequently, it is concluded that impurity hydrogen is transported to the surface with gliding dislocations during deformation.

Jan 1, 1998

By Antti Roine

Sulfidic zinc concentrates are usually roasted in a fluidized bed furnace into sulfur-free oxide form. Metallic zinc is produced from this oxidic calcine using hydrometallurgical leaching, solution purification and electrowinning stages. The roasting step is necessary because zinc oxides are easier to dissolve using traditional leaching methods than zinc sulfides. The Kokkola Zinc smelter uses various types of zinc concentrates and secondary materials as feed mixture. This makes it difficult to find optimum process parameters for the roaster when the composition and particle size distribution of the feed mixture varies even on a daily basis. Certain conditions may even cause difficult accretion problems or increase the amount of calcine in the process off-gas line excessively. A thermochemical heat and material balance model was developed for process advisor, in order to estimate the effects of different process parameters (temperature, process air coefficient, concentrate feed, oxygen enrichment, water feed, etc.) on the heat balance, roasting temperature and calcine composition. This model was constructed using the heat balance module of HSC Chemistry 4.0 software. The prevailing chemical compounds in the concentrate and calcine were verified using mineralogical analyses and equilibrium calculations. The roasting process seems to operate near chemical equilibrium conditions, if the behavior of the main components is considered. This paper describes briefly the basic principles of the calculation model and outlines the results with several diagrams and discussion. The calculated results were in reasonable agreement with the recent process air oxygen enrichment and water feed test campaigns carried out at Kokkola in 1999.

Jan 1, 2000

By Shengli Wu, Jinming Zhu, Wei Huang, Xinliang Liu

The sinter of high basicity would interact with lump ores or acid pellets in the cohesive zone of blast furnace due to the difference of chemical composition and micro structures. The results of this work showed that the softening-melting properties of lump ores and acid pellet would be obviously improved by the high temperature interaction. However, the high temperature interaction index (INI) would be influenced by many factors, such as chemical composition, porosity, interaction interface and so on. The INI between sinter and porous limonite lump ore (L-2) was much higher than that of dense hematite lump ore (L-1) and acid pellet (P-1). In addition, though the softening and melting properties of L-2 were poorest in respective iron ores, the softening and melting properties of integrated burden B (consist of sinter and L-2) were not worse than other integrated burdens due to the strong high temperature interaction.

Jan 1, 2015

By A. V. Tarasov

Based on the data available in the literature and the practical experience of new metallurgical plants, a method has been proposed and relevant studies conducted for metallurgical processing of zinc sulfide concentrates. Process conditions and parameters have been identified, which ensure high levels of recovery of zinc into solution. This is achieved by leaching concentrates under the normal pressure at a temperature of >90°C in the presence of ferric iron ions. Sulfide sulfur is converted to elemental sulfur in this process. To produce elemental sulfur it is necessary to maintain oxidizing conditions in the system, characterized by a positive Eh value. In order to eliminate the interfering effect of elemental sulfur formed in the process, it is possible to add surfactants into the concentrate pulp. The proposed technology has certain advantages as compared with the high-temperature pressure leaching and is considered as a basic technology to be applied to increase zinc production at one of the Russian zinc plants.

Jan 1, 2006

By R. Togashi, T. Aichi, T. Yamada

"A new automatic material- handling system for cathode transportation has been developed. The first system went into service in August 1994 and the remains will be operational subsequently.Because of the complex cell-layout and the number of cells in each row, the critical part of this work was achieving a planned cycle time. This cycle time is determined by the power costs.The central monitoring system for machine operation was started in June 1996, using original application software based on MICROSOFT EXCEL ® on WINDOWS 95® .As a result, only one person is now required to operate both a crane and a stripping machine for one row of about 50 cells.INTRODUCTIONMainly due to the strong yen and the relatively low price of metal, the zinc refineries in Japan are being forced to reduce production costs again and again.The trend of lijima's production costs is shown in Figure 1.[1] The ratio of labor costs becomes gradually higher. Therefore it is effective to reduce the labor costs in order to reduce the production costs. In Japan, electricity cost during day time is too high to produce zinc at a reasonable cost, that is why the actual production is far from the capacity of production at a cell house. That means a plant in Japan has the disadvantage of relatively low productivity for cell house operation.Saving labor costsSome automatic cranes have been applied to save labor costs for cell house operation in the world. In consideration of the mentioned low productivity, the installation of an Automatic Cathode Transfer (ACn system for transportation of cathodes was planned without changing the present cell house and stripping machines to lower the investment costs. The ACT system must keep up with the stripping machine which is able to strip deposit zinc from a cathode sheet at the rate of 6 seconds.The fifth ACT system of seven was installed in August 1996 and the last one will be operational subsequently."

Jan 1, 1997

By A. V. Tarasov

Regeneration of carbide waste from hard-alloy (sintered carbide) manufacture is an important scientific and technical objective aimed at improving the degree of recycling of rare metals (W, Co, Ta, Ti, Nb). Currently, the degree of recycling of those metals does not exceed 25% to 35% of their total production even in industrially developed countries. This is attributed to a significant extent to the substantial drawbacks of the technologies applied for their processing (environmental pollution, limitations to the use of regenerated products for important applications, sophisticated equipment to be used). An innovative environmentally sound technology has been developed in the Institute of Metallurgy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMET RAN) for processing of carbide waste of WC, TiC, TTC and other carbides using asymmetric alternating current of industrial frequency (the electrolyte used for this purpose is nitric acid solution). The current efficiency under optimal conditions is as high as 96% to 98%. The process has been tested on bench scale. The following commercial-grade products are obtained: pure ammonium paratungstate, tungstic acid, cobalt oxide, titanium dioxide and tantalum-niobium concentrate. The total metals recovery is 98% to 99%.

Jan 1, 2006