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"Injection technology has been an important subject from the early days of ladle metallurgy until the present. During the last decade, there have not been many publications in the area of injection technology. It is the author's opinion that with the challenge to find new solutions especially to environmental and energy related problems as well as better understanding of phenomenas from computer modelling, a new era of inventive injection technology developments is at hand. This is illustrated in the article with examples from six different areas where MEFOS is or have recently carried out R&D work related to issues from the injection technology field. IntroductionThe boom in injection technologies came with the introduction of ladle metallurgy treatment during the '70s and '80s. Since then, the theories and principles have been thoroughly laid down by a number of scientists and also published at several early SCANINJECT conferences.Not many new technologies/applications have been presented during the last ten years. This might lead one to believe that everything is known and done. Those, like MEFOS, who are challenged to find technological solutions to a number of environmental problems and energy saving issues in the pyrometallurgical field are, however, continuously faced with the task of developing new injection technologies.Especially, the call for sustainable technologies to solve environmental problems is a challenge for metallurgists all over the world and it will surely induce a revival of injection technologies. So, in order to encourage all injection experts, let us share some new experiences and let us encourage each other's creativity to solve some of the demands of the future society.The following show some examples of technologies under development, or recently tested."

Jan 1, 1996

By S. Moussa

The formation of boron-doped nickel aluminides Ni3AI, (76 at. % Ni) from elemental powders by reaction synthesis using reactive sintering was studied. The process involves the mixing of elemental powders of nickel and aluminium with various wt % of boron up to 1 wt % boron. Nickel and Aluminium powders were mixed in the correct proportion to form the intended boron-doped nickel aluminide intermetallic. XRD, SEMI EDS, Image analysis and Archimedes principle; were used to study the effect of Boron addition on the final microstructure, bulk density, average grain size of as reactively-sintered nickel aluminides (boron-doped), compared with no boron addition. The results showed that at greater boron content than 0.3 wt %, a two-phase non-equilibrium microstructure of consisting of NiAI phase in NiJAI matrix was formed that have been primarily retained even after heat treatment for 5 hours at 1000 °C. Boron was present in solid-solution within both the NiAI and the Ni3AI (in greater amounts) phases.

Jan 1, 2001

By A. J. Davidson

A novel sensor is described for the measurement of the copper content of copper matte. Due to the high copper concentrations found in matte, potentiometric sensors are not sufficiently sensitive. A highly sensitive sensor has been developed based on a modification of the amperometric technique using a copper ion conductor, Cusicon. The results correlate closely with the theoretical predictions.

Jan 1, 1998

By S. K. Varma, Miriam Regalado, Daniel Salas, Erica Corral, Erika Esquivel

"Age hardenable 2014 aluminum alloys and composites containing 0.10 and 0.15 volume fractions of alumina particles (VFAP) have been solutionized at 540 and 550°C for up to 20 hours. The solutionized samples, heat treated for 5 and 20 hours, have been subjected to room temperature rolling until cracking develops. The work hardening curves have been compared to determine the effect of solutionizing time on the rolling characteristics from both hardness and the microstructural evolution points of view. Solutionizing at two different temperatures results in differences in the extent to which the composites can be rolled until fracture. The microstructural characterization by TEM has been performed to understand the room temperature rolling behavior.IntroductionThe effect of solutionizing on the age hardening response of 6061 and 2014 aluminum alloys and composites reinforced with 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20 volume fractions of alumina particles (VFAP) have been reported in the literature [1-4]. A comparison of the monolith and composites indicates that particles promote the aging process through differences in the microstructures in solutionized condition. The first effect of solutionizing is to produce a grain growth process which follows a grain growth law (square of grain diameter as a function of solutionizing time). It appears that it is possible for vacancies to be emitted during grain growth period as they try to minimize the total grain boundary surface area by increasing their diameter. This may be common to both the monolith and the composites. However, the second effect must be exclusively considered for the composites. The particles generate dislocations during the solutionizing process due to the differences in the values of the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the particles and aluminum base metal. It has been determined [1] that the dislocation density increases with increase in solutionizing time in the composites of 6061 aluminum alloys reinforced with 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20 VFAP. The improved bonding between particles and matrix can give rise to additional generation of dislocations due to curvature effects [1] with the result that the dislocation density continues to increase with increase in solutionizing time even after the CTE effect is considered to have been stabilized."

Jan 1, 1998

By P. A. Treasure

The EMEW® cell has been developed to overcome a number of inherent limitations in conventional electrowinning technology, particularly the high cost and restricted process windows characteristic of conventional hardware. The technology has been widely demonstrated to achieve high performance for various metals under chemical conditions well outside the limits required for efficient operation of conventional cells. This process flexibility offers significant opportunities for cost savings. in recovery of zinc from primary and secondary sources. The EMEW® technology is now available on a fully engineered basis, as a versatile commercial alternative to conventional electrowinning hardware. Application of the EMEW® cell for recovery of secondary zinc material offers significant advantages to the recycling industry. For example, a selective caustic leach can be used where there are high levels of iron or other contaminants in the target material. The reagent requirement is minimal as most of the caustic is regenerated in the bell and zinc dust that may be required for electrolyte purification is produced in the cell. A high purity zinc powder or cathode is produced in the cell. In the case of acidic zinc electrolytes, the cell is capable of operating over a much wider range of operating conditions than a conventional cell.

Jan 1, 2000

By Guo Chang Jiang

In order to improve the IIAZ toughness of X-60 pipe steel, the intragranular ferrite plate (IFP) technology was used. The characteristics of IFP is claimed to be much fine ferrite plates appear inside the original austenite grains. By means of suitable Re, Zr, Ti additions in a bath with a higher initial oxygen potential, a good control of the peak temperature and the cooling rate during welding simulation, one can get a %IFP in volume over 50%, and the toughness gets up from 55 J to 160 J. It was found that the inclusions most effective in nucleating IFP are some deformable complex silicates which either entrap Re, Zr, Ti oxides or contain these elements. The greater the number of the evenly distributed and effectively nucleating inclusions, the more the %IFP in volume, and the finer the microstructure of the HAZ, so the better the relevant toughness. Generally, these silicates bahave as fine spheres along a line. The present authors revealed that these fine spheres result from the remelting of the shuttle- like silicates due to heating in the process of welding simulation. These silicates used to get a higher sulphur capacity, so MnS deposits might be observed on the periphery of the silicates. IFP was proved to be directly rooted in the [Mn] depleting zone which locates beside MnS deposits.

Jan 1, 1997

By Carl W. Dalrymple

A wide variety of contaminants (heavy metals, suspended solids, colloids, oils, organics) have been successfully removed from wastewater using an electrocoagulation process. An innovative electrocoagulation system is described. This process involves a procedure which subjects dissolved and suspended wastewater contaminants to the simultaneous addition of metal ions in the presence of direct current. During the treatment process Ionic and other charged particles in the wastewater are neutralized with oppositely charged ions generating the coagulation of contaminants: The process Is called CURE, and' presented here with application to wastewaters containing mainly heavy metals.

Jan 1, 1995

Studies of electric pulse (EP) disintegration were conducted on ores of disseminated precious minerals, 'on platinum-bearing chromitites of the Konder Complex, Russia, on diamond-bearing impactites of the Popigai meteoritic crater, Russia, and on and diamond-bearing metamorphic rocks of Northern Kazakhstan. It was shown that EP disintegration ~s a technology that achieves ideal liberation of disseminated minerals, and is a new efficient method to study accessory minerals.

Jan 1, 1991

By Vladimir Mindin

Simulation of complex equilibria is usually done in the P-T-X coordinates, where "Xu is the amount of individual chemical components in the system. This approach is not productive in some very important cases: (i) investigation of "open" systems, (ii) determination of coordinates (trajectories) of mono-variant points, among others. To solve these and some other problems, we use the idea of chemical potentials of elements (CPE) of the system. A system of different coordinates axes (CPE-axes ) leads to a new strategy of simulation, observing the results of the simulation, and to efficient technology of compressing and storage the data of the simulation.

Jan 1, 1994

By Angus Hellawell

The application of the common tangent principle to free energy - composition surfaces is considered. It is shown that the construction requires that single phase surfaces on either side of a two phase volume must always exhibit the same sign of curvature - contrary to that shown in many published phase diagrams. In general, these curvatures will be such that the surfaces are mutually concave towards the more stable phase. A number of examples are discussed.

Jan 1, 1991

By Nobuhiro Ishikawa

The in-situ observation of the effect of impurities on the reduction process of iron oxides by C in TEM was carried out. A few wt% of CaO or AbO, was used as impurities in FeO was prepared. Some precipitates grew into the C layer expect for using 3.0wtCa. The reaction between FeO and carbon was much different from using pure FeO at about 800-1 lOOK. The rate of reaction became much slower including Ca and almost no reaction was happened with the concentration of CaO up to 3.0wt%. On the contrary, AbO, had ahuost no effect on the reaction. The results indicated that Ca suppressed the reaction and the effect of Al was much less. The precipitates which grew into C layer accompanied almost no Ca and AI. Only Fe was detected in the precipitates.

Jan 1, 2008

By Takashi Nakamura

Dismantling and detachment of parts from e-scrap are essential and involve higher cost techniques in pretreatment processes for physical separation. New techniques are desired for effective recycling of minor rare metals, therefore, we are trying to develop new detachment processes such as a new break down process. The principal of this new process is an electrical disintegration by electric pulse. E-scrap is broken down by high voltage electric pulses in water. IC chips and LSI can be detached from printed circuit boards under proper conditions. Ta- capacitors are also broken down to plastic parts and Ta sinter with lead wire. This is very useful in terms of pretreatment for e-scrap recycling. Also in the case of metallurgical production, with its intrinsic potential of smelting, extraction, enrichment and separation methods, play an important role in the context of minor rare metals.

Jan 1, 2015

By Guoqiang Lv, Xi Yang, Wenhui Ma

Cast multicrystalline silicon ingots are widely used in photovoltaic manufacturing. A key issue to achieve high solar cell efficiencies is to attain an optimized temperature field during directional solidification (DS) process. This paper reports numerical investigation of multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) ingot production using two major types of DS furnace. Specific examination is made on thermal distribution, interface shape and stress field. Evaluation is performed for the applicability of thermal system design to reduce thermal stress, improve crystal quality and enhance energy efficiency. The effects of procedure parameters and geometric configuration on temperature distribution are discussed as well to provide the viable solutions for systems optimization.

Jan 1, 2015

By K. Nona C. Liddell

There is a significant amount of early work that has been largely forgotten that deals with the validity of the pseudo-steady approximation for liquid-solid reactions. Much of this was originally published in the chemical engineering literature but is highly relevant to hydrometallurgical processes. The purpose of this paper is to summarize some criteria that were been developed by various authors for determining the error associated with use of shrinking core models for liquid-solid systems.

Jan 1, 2002

By Peter A. Spencer

Bacterial oxidation technology has the ability to selectively attack sulphide minerals. Selectivity allows oxidation of more reactive minerals and the extraction of valuable metals while leaving the bulk of the sulphide component unreacted. Partial oxidation can be used on arsenopyrite to recover gold and for the leaching of base metals, such as copper and nickel, from pyritic ore and concentrate without generation of large quantities of acidic iron solution, which must be neutralized. Thus, rejection of pyrite during the oxidation process can considerably reduce treatment costs. Acid generation in tailings dams would be minimal, compared with most Thiobacillus cultures, as the optimum growth temperature of Bactechts culture is above ambient.

Jan 1, 1992

By Daoxin Wu

Originated from(C4H9O)4Ti, nano--rutile TiO2 was synthesized by low temperature hydrolysis process in this paper. After being prepared by decomposing ammonium tungstate and covering on the surface of TiO2, TiO2/WO3 were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction(XRD), UV--vis difuse reflectance(DRS), fluorescence spectrum (FS). Results showed that with the increase of the supported concentration of WO3, the reflectance of DRS and the fluorescence spectrum intensity of TiO2/WO3 decreased accordingly, which indicated the powder?s increase in light absorbance and the decrease in luminescence respectively; with the increase of calcined temperature, the reflectance of DRS increased.

Jan 1, 2009

By Zhigang Zak Fang, Michael L. Free, Jaehun Cho, Syamantak Roy, Amarchand Sathyapalan

Leaching characteristics of impurity removal from the Upgraded Titania Slag (UGS) using hydrochloric and boric acids has been investigated. Specifically, this study has focused on removal of iron oxides from the UGS that has been reduced by hydrogen gas and magnesium at 750oC for 5 hours. Reduced UGS is mainly composed of titanium hydride and impurities like iron oxides, silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, and magnesium oxide. The concentration of hydrochloric and boric acids and the leaching temperature have been chosen as the prime variables to identify the optimum conditions and leaching characteristics for removal of iron oxides. It was observed that under the constraint that 1 wt % of titanium hydride loss is the maximum amount tolerable, 0.1M HCl with 1M boric acid and 90oC are the most effective parameters for iron removal from the reduced UGS. Also, the overall rate of reaction seems to follow interfacial reaction controlled kinetics. The calculated activation energy of the reaction is 73.90kJ/mol.

Jan 1, 2016

By Jiangtao Li, Zhongwei Zhao, Xingyu Chen, Xuheng Liu

In order to produce good quality ammonium paratungstate, Sn needs be removed efficiently from the tungstate processing solution. The nascent hydrous ferric oxide has excellent adsorption ability and is often used as an adsorbent to remove metal ions from aqueous solution. In this paper, nascent hydrous ferric oxide is used to remove Sn from tungstate solution. Through experimental, the effects of pH value, reagent amount of adsorbent, reaction temperature and reaction time on the Sn removal are investigated. The study shows that 98% of Sn can be removed effectively from sodium tungstate solution and only 2% of W is lost during process under the conditions of pH 9~12, reagent amount of Fe addition 40 times Sn amount, reaction time 30min and room temperature. As the Fe addition reaches 90 times of Sn concentration in the ammonium tungstate solution, 99% of Sn is removed and APT with zero level purity national standard is obtained.

Jan 1, 2014

By Qingwei Qin, Ping Xue, Guangqiang Li

Ausmelt furnace slag contains about 0.9% Cu (mass %). With increasing the amount of Ausmelt furnace slag, the recovery of copper from it will produce an enormous economic yield. The recovery of copper by floatation from slow cooled Ausmelt furnace slag was studied in this paper. The phases and composition of the slow cooled slag were analyzed. The factors which affected the copper recovery efficiency such as grinding fineness, pH value of flotation medium, different collectors and floating process were investigated. It was shown that the size distribution of the primary grinding and secondary grinding of middling were 75% for particles less than 0.074mm and 82% for particles less than 0.043mm respectively. The closedcircuit experimental results with butyl xanthate as collector in laboratory showed that the copper grade reached 16.11% and the recovery rate of copper reached 69.90% and the copper grade of tailings was only 0.2%.

Jan 1, 2015

By Richard B. Stein

Bechtel's BEMSIM computer program is a useful tool for solvent extraction-electrowinning plant design optimization. Its power (up to 90 stream components, 240 process streams, 180 process steps) has been applied to investigate floweheet configurations in order to perform basic engineering, sizing of plant equipment and to optimize performance of commercial-size copper plants. Flowsheet variations presented include series, parallel and series-parallel extraction stages, while heat balances simulate operations in summer and extreme winter conditions. The BEMSIM program has also been applied to nickel-cobalt, gold and manganese extraction.

Jan 1, 1993