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By J. Pesl, U. Kemey, F. Sauert

"The CONTOP® smelting cyclone is a water-cooled, upright, high-intensity smelting reactor. The technology for the reactor was initially developed and brought into industrial-scale operation in the area of non-ferrous metallurgy. The two largest smelting cyclones were built with a capacity of 32 tons per hour of copper concentrate mix.The newest industrial CONTOP® plant treats up to five tons per hour of zinc-bearing residues including EAF dust. The highly concentrated zinc-lead oxide produced is sold to the zinc industry. The slag fulfills the leaching criteria and is used in waterway construction. The heat transferred to the cyclone cooling system and the off-gas boiler produces steam from which power is generated in a turbine.V AI has erected a new CONTOP® demonstration plant at MEFOS, Lulea, Sweden. A zinc volatilization rate of 90% was achieved during hot commissioning with Swedish EAF dust.Treatment costs in the range of 85 to 100 EUR per ton were estimated in a feasibility study on the treatment of 73,000 and 57 ,000 tons EAF dust for a group of steelmaking mills in Southern Europe."

Jan 1, 2000

By Roberto Parra

The classic criteria of the preparation of the charge for the smelting of copper concentrates in a flash furnace considers the mass and energy balance from the chemical and mineralogy composition of the concentrates. The operation parameters fixed with this method don't assure the stability of the operation and the critical problems of the slag quality and dust formation occurs very often. This paper presents the results of a laboratory test that allows the predicition of the behavior of concentrates blends in the view of the minimization of the dust formation and the magnetite control in the slag. The combustion of different copper concentrates and blends were done in a drop tube furnace. The results show that the magnetite and dust formation don't have a linear behavior with the weight proportion of the blend and some optimal blends of 2 or 3 types of concentrates can be identified. From the reasonable hypothesis that the qualitative behavior of blends in the drop tube represents the real behavior in the burner, the preparation of the charge with this approach could help to solve those operational problems.

Jan 1, 2003

By Roberto Parra

The classic criteria of the preparation of the charge for the smelting of copper concentrates in at flash furnace considers the mass and energy balance from the chemical and mineralogy composition of the concentrates. The operation parameters fixed with this method don't assure the stability of the operation and the critical problems of the slag quality and dust formation occurs very often. This paper presents the results of a laboratory test that allows the prediction of the behavior of concentrates blends in the view of the minimization of the dust formation and the magnetite control in the slag. The combustion of different copper concentrates and blends were done in a drop tube furnace The results show that the magnetite and dust formation don't have a linear behavior with the weight proportion of the blend and some optimal blends of 2 or 3 types of concentrates can be identified. From the reasonable hypothesis that the qualitative behavior of blends in the drop tube represents the real behavior in the burner, the preparation of the charge with this approach could help to solve those operational problems.

Jan 1, 2003

By Rak-lun Choi

Plasma-induced damage of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has been studied in terms of forward turn-on and reverse breakdown voltages, together with etch rate and surface morphology. The physical degradation of sidewall along with rough surface morphology of n-GaN caused by increased ion scattering induced the deterioration of the forward and reverse voltages. It was found that the turn-on voltage is sensitive to the surface roughness of the etched n-GaN and the breakdown voltage is strongly affected by the sidewall contamination. Annealing under nitrogen after the mesa etching improved the electrical properties of the InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs. Efficient blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were fabricated using InGaN/GaN triangular MQWs. The LEDs with triangular QWs showed a lower operation voltage and 2.4 times higher light output power than those with the rectangular MQW LEDs at 20 mA and 20 °C. The intensity of electroluminescence (EL) at 20 mA was almost independent of ambient temperature in the triangular QW LED, but decreased substantially in the rectangular one.

Jan 1, 2003

By Rak-Jun Choi

Plasma-induced damage of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has been studied in terms of forward turn-on and reverse breakdown voltages, together with etch rate and surface morphology. The physical degradation of sidewall along with rough surface morphology of n-GaN caused by increased ion scattering induced the deterioration of the forward and reverse voltages. It was found that the turn-on voltage is sensitive to the surface roughness of the etched n-GaN and the breakdown voltage is strongly affected by the sidewall contamination. Annealing under nitrogen after the mesa etching improved the electrical properties of the InGaN/GaN MQW LEOs. Efficient blue light-emitting diodes (LEOs) were fabricated using InGaN/GaN triangular MQWs. The LEOs with triangular QWs showed a lower operation voltage and 2.4 times higher light output power than those with the rectangular MQW LEOs at 20 rnA and 20 "C. The intensity of electroluminescence (EL) at 20 mA was almost independent of ambient temperature in the triangular QW LEO, but decreased substantially in the rectangular one.

Jan 1, 2003

By L. A. Mills

After three years of experience in operating the pilot plant for the Noranda Continuous Smelting Process, the decision was made, in March 1971, to build an 800 ton per day commercial plant at Noranda, Quebec. The de- sign and layout of the plant is discussed and the installed equipment described. Experience previously gained in the pilot plant is mentioned when it has been used in the choice of equipment or plant layout. The full- scale reactor was started up in March 1973 and the operational datacollected and the experience acquired during the first 30 months of operation are described. This includes operation to produce both high grade matte and copper. Areas discussed include refractory wear, fuel consumption and throughput of copper concentrates. Changes made to original equipment and methods of operation are discussed, together with the reasons. The ad- vantages of using solid fuels to handle inert materials and to maximize converting air flowrates and concentrate throughputs are described. Relative efficiencies of oil and natural gas are compared. The addition of oxygen from a 94 ton per day oxygen plant to the reactor converting air was started in August 1975 and the initial operating results are included.

Jan 1, 1976

By André L. de Vegt

Soil and groundwater beneath a zinc production plant in The Netherlands are contaminated with metals and sulfate. To avoid contamination of nearby drinking water aquifers, a hydro-geological containment system and a biological treatment plant for the extracted ground water have been installed. Currently about 5000 m3/day of groundwater is extracted from a combination of 12 shallow and deep wells. Heavy metals and sulfate have to be removed from the extracted water before it can be discharged into a river. Several water treatment methods have been studied and pilot tested at the site. The preferred and selected process is based on the activity of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) and combines sulfate removal and heavy metal removal in one single installation. Anaerobic bacteria reduce sulfate to sulfide resulting in the precipitation of metal sulfides. Excess sulfide Is biologically converted to elemental sulfur. A full scale biological treatment system was started up in May 1992. Design, start-up, commissioning and operational experiences are reported in this paper. Concentrations of metals and sulfate in the SRB water treatment plant effluent are well within the limits set by the Dutch Authorities for discharge to surface water.

Jan 1, 1995

By Michel G. Drouet

Dross, a major by-product of all processes involving molten aluminum, forms at the surface of the molten metal as the latter reacts with the furnace atmosphere. It generally represents 1 to 5 wt% of the melt, depending on the process, and contains on average about 50% free aluminum dispersed in an oxide layer. Since aluminum production is highly energy-intensive, dross recycling is very attractive from both the energy and the economic standpoints. The conventional recycling process using salt rotary furnaces is thermally inefficient and environmentally non-acceptable because of the production of salt slags. Hydro-Quebec has developed and patented a new salt-free technology using a rotary furnace heated by an electric arc between two graphite electrodes, called DROSCAR®. A 600-kW pilot plant in operation at LTEE is in use to demonstrate the process. This process provides aluminum recovery rates over 90%, using a highly energy efficient, environmentally sound production method. In 1994, 400 tonnes of aluminum dross were treated in this facility and several tests on various types of dross have also been conducted in early 1995. A report on the results will be presented.

Jan 1, 1995

By Keizo Uematsu, Kumiko Sanda, Nozomu Uchida

"Full understanding of mechanical properties is the most important assignment in ceramics. Establishment of defects-property relationship is crucial for fulfilling the assignment. This study reports detailed characteristics of defects and their relevance to the mechanical properties for alumina ceramics made through a typical industrial processing. Novel characterization methods were applied to evaluate their defects. A very simple direct correlation was successfully found between defects and properties in ceramics. This result is a great epoch in the field of ceramics. IntroductionThe ceramic materials are used in refractoriness, corrosion resistant materials and structural materials. The low fracture toughness and scatter of strength are very important problems in ceramics. The toughness of ceramics is lower than metal and polymer materials, and the allowed defect size is small. Very small internal defects (pore, crack, huge particle) can be a fracture origin in the brittle fracture. The characteristics of defects such as size, distribution and shape change markedly by process condition, which cause the scatter of strength. This study conducts quantitative evaluation and direct observation of the sizes, shape and a number of internal defects with a light microscope, and discusses the relationship for mechanical properties and defect sizes"

Jan 1, 2000

By Yoshiaki Suzuki

In 1996, Saganoseki smelter & refinery successfully shifted to a single flash smelting furnace operation and increased the copper production capacity to 450,000mtpy in 1998. As the next step, Saganoseki planned to further increase the productivity in the smelting process. Applying the latest technology and carrying out technological innovations the throughput of the flash smelting furnace has been increased to 195 tons per hour and the matte grade has been raised to 68%. In 2005, six PS converters have been successfully consolidated into four by maintaining the production capacity. This paper introduces recent operation conditions and results of implementation of technological improvements.

Jan 1, 2006

By Ovidiu Pasca

Several improvements in converter equipment and operation at BHP Copper have reduced the converter cycle time as necessitated by an increase in flash furnace output. The resulting higher intensity performance of the Peirce-Smith Converters has had a major impact on the dust handling and off-gas cleaning systems. This paper describes work carried out on the design of a new converter hood with particular reference to the thermal analysis and hood performance aspects. Changes in converter cycle time and campaign life as result of the process and equipment improvements are discussed in a separate paper.

Jan 1, 1999

By Hector M. Henao

There is an increasing trend in the copper smelters to recycle electronic materials, which contain relatively high concentration of precious metals. As a consequence, the amount of precious metals lost in the slag phase is increasing. To determine the portion of the precious metals chemically dissolved and that associated with the mechanically trapped matte in the slag will be a key factor to improve the recovery of those metals. Thus, an experimental study was carried out to determine the distribution of precious metals (Au, Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru) between the equilibrated copper matte and iron-silicate slag phases. The experiments were made in a magnesia crucible at 1573 K and a fixed partial pressure of SO2 of 0.1 atm for the matte grades between 40 and 70 mass% of copper. It was found that the distribution ratios (defined as mass% X in slag/mass% X in matte, where X represents the precious metal) are around 10-2 for Ru, 10-3 for Au, Pt and Pd and 10-4 for Rh. The distribution ratios show a tendency to increase when the grade of matte is increased.

Jan 1, 2006

By Hector M. Henao

To provide thermodynamic data for converting nickel matte to liquid nickel at high temperature, an experimental study was conducted on the phase equilibrium between the Ni-S alloy and the FeOX-SiO2, FeOx-CaO, and CaO-A12O3 base slag in a magnesia crucible and the CaO-Al2O3-MgO slag in an alumina crucible. All experiments were carried out at 1773 K under controlled pso2 of 0.1 atm and po2 in a range between 5x10- and 10-5 atm by using CO-CO2-SO2 gas mixtures. The dissolution of nickel in the slag was found to be minimum for the CaO-Al203¬-MgO slag with a molar ratio of NCaO/NA1203=1.7. The solubility of nickel in this slag at p02 of 6x10 atm (just before the precipitation of solid NiO) was 4 mass%. This result suggests that a CaO-A12O3 base slag could be used in converting Ni-S melt to nickel while minimizing nickel losses to the slag.

Jan 1, 2002

By Suzzann Nordwick

Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in the development of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) technology to treat acid mine drainage (AMD). Bench-scale testing, field demonstrations, and engineered applications of SRBs for the treatment of AMD will be presented. Designs include an in situ bioreactor installed in the subsurface workings of the Lilly Orphan Boy Mine in 1994, the SRB bioreactors installed at the Calliope Mine from 1998 to 2001, the integrated biological reactors built at the Surething Mine in 2001, and the ongoing development of a replaceable cartridge system. SRB technology benefits include the reduction of dissolved metal ions to insoluble metal sulfides and the neutralization of the AMD resulting from the production of bicarbonate from the oxidation of organic nutrients. This paper will address engineering design criteria including the selection of organic media and system permeability and complete mitigation of AMD. Research was funded under Interagency Agreement No. DW899388-70-01-1 between the US EPA and the US DOE and was conducted by MSE Technology Applications, Inc., through the National Environmental Technology Laboratory (DOE Contract No. DE-AC22-96EW96405) at the Western Environmental Technology Office located in Butte, Montana.

Jan 1, 2003

By J. Sjöblom

New copper and nickel processes, flash converting and DON, direct high-grade nickel matte smelting, have been developed in order to replace the conventional and not so environmentally friendly PS-converting process. With a laboratory scale laminar-flow furnace the combustion reactions of sulfidic feed particles can be investigated under simulated flash smelting conditions. In the present study, finely ground and screened feed fractions of a copper matte and a nickel matte were flash oxidized in a laminar-flow furnace. The experiments were carried out using 20, 21 vol% and 75 vol% O2 in nitrogen, at temperatures 1100 and 1300 °C and reaction zone length of 7.5-16 cm. The samples were quenched in a water film after a specified reaction time. The matte particle reactions were stopped after short residence time intervals in order to obtain a better understanding of the reaction mechanisms. Chemical analysis was used to determine oxidation degree, and optical and scanning electron microscope combined with energy dispersive analysis was used for characterization of the reacted particles. On the basis of the experimental results the reactivity of the mattes is discussed and possible reaction and dust formation mechanisms are considered.

Jan 1, 1999

By Osamu Yamamoto

In antibacterial evaluation of carbon-ceramic composites, we prepared two type composites with emphasis on carbon-ZnO system; one was porous carbon materials containing ZnO nano-particles and another was porous ZnO coated with carbon thin film. Porous carbon samples containing ZnO at highly dispersed state were prepared by carbonizing the resin exchanged by Zn2+ ion. Porous ZnO coated with carbon thin film was obtained by the pyrolysis of poly (vinyl alcohol). Antibacterial activity of these composites obtained was evaluated by measuring the changes in electrical conductivity with bacteria growth. The antibacterial activity on the composites increased with the increase of t he amount of ZnO in composite and decreased with the increase of carbonization temperature. The antibacterial activity for Staphylococcus aureuswas found to be stronger than that for Escherichia coli. No activity of the carbon samples without ZnO was observed. The occurrence of antibacterial activity was supposed to be due to the generation of hydrogen peroxide from ZnO in composite. In the present work, antibacterial activity of carbon-ZnO composites was studied in the details.

Jan 1, 2006

By Ana E. Bohé

Chlorination process is an attractive and efficient method for the metal recovery from complex materials. The process that is performed at high temperatures, allows converting all the metals contained in the material into their respective chlorides which are further separated in a selective way. Aluminum metal matrix composites with discontinuous ceramic reinforcement of short fibers, whiskers, and particles have been gaining wide acceptance as an important engineering material in automotive, aerospace, and electronic industries. Since the ceramic reinforcements are still quite expensive and contribute significantly to the final cost of composite materials, the feasibility of their recovery from the manufacturing scrap and further recycling is a factor of increasing economic interest. In the present work, a theoretical and experimental study is given for the recovery of Al2O3 and SiC particles and short fibers from three commercially available aluminum-matrix composites produced by molten metal mixing route. The process consists of transforming the constituents of metallic alloy matrices in gaseous chlorides that are dragged by the gaseous stream, while the ceramic reinforcement remains as a solid residue in the reaction bed.

Jan 1, 2006

By David Roha, Øyvind Mikkelsen

"Significant resources have been spent throughout the years in the investigation of production of aluminum by carbothermic reduction. Due to the technological challenges involved, the efforts have not yet resulted in a commercial process. An initiative to overcome issues that prevented previous attempts to succeed was taken by Alcoa through the Advanced Reactor Process. The research program has resulted in technical developments which have resolved many of the previous issues. The knowledge about the process has continuously improved through physical and computer modeling as well as by experimentation at various scales. The technical achievements together with improved process understanding have resulted in a reactor design able to continuously operate the process for several weeks at the time, with hundreds of kilograms of alloy in every tap.IntroductionThe Hall-Heroult process has since its invention in the late 19th century, been essentially the only process used for commercial production of primary aluminum. The process has so far proved to be superior to all potential process alternatives and has continuously been improved. Although the Hall-Heroult is a reliable process it also has challenges:"

Jan 1, 2012

By Wei-ling Wang, Ryosuke O. Suzuki, Xiang-ning Meng, Miao-yong Zhu

"A finite-element thermal-stress model of continuous casting mold is conducted to predict deformation of copper plates and its change with different cooling structure. The results show that deformation behavior of copper plates is mainly governed by cooling structure and thermal- mechanical conditions, deformation amount is related to structure geometry, and a small deformation mutation occurs in cooper-nickel boundary due to different properties. The maximum deformation of hot surface centricities of wide face locate at 100 mm below meniscus and that of narrow face locate at meniscus and terminal of water slots and significant curvature fluctuations on both sides of copper-nickel boundary. The maximum deformation of centricities is increased up to 0.05 mm with thickness increment 5 mm of copper plates, and maximum deformations are only depressed 0.01 mm and 0.02 mm with increments of 1 mm nickel layer thickness and 2 mm water slot depth respectively.IntroductionIn conventional continuous casting of steel, a large amount of sensible and latent heat of molten steel dissipate in primary cooling zone and make continuous casting mold under enormous heating load giving rise to thermal stress, deformation, high-temperature fatigue and creep not only depress mold life-span, but reduce casting stability [1] Many studies focused more on heat transfer, solidification and shrinkage of solidifying shell to provide inverse proposals for optimizing cooling system and even designing new taper of mold [2,3], but it is generally useless to those of having been manufactured or being put into production. Therefore, mold-related forward problems show necessity to be discussed deeply, and stress and deformation distributions based on special thermal conditions in mold should be analyzed in order to explore suitable cooling structure of mold directly. Samarasekera et al. [4] examined heat flow and distortion of two-dimensional longitudinal sections and investigated effect of cooling water velocity, copper plates thickness and carbon content on formation of rhomboidity and longitudinal comer cracks. O'Connor et al. [5] developed a three-dimensional mathematical model to compute thermo-mechanical state in thin-slab mold and calculated temperature and deformation of mold wall to assess roles of various process parameters on impacting mold life. Thomas et al. [6] predicted temperature, distortion and residual stress in mold and indicated increased distortion requires increased remachining, which reduces mold life and increased residual stress increases the probability of a catastrophic crack failure. Park et al. [7l determined heat-flux profiles in funnel-shaped and parallel thin-slab molds based on an inverse heat conduction model and thermocouple temperature measured in-plant and put them into three- dimensional finite-element thermal-stress model to predict temperature, distortion and residual stress of mold wall. Korie et al. [SJ focused on prediction of temperature, distortion and residual stress in mold and in particular to clarify that mold life is significantly affected by temperature and its rigidity, but little effect by mechanical including clamping force, bolt prestress, friction and ferrostatic pressure. Meng et al. [9l predicted temperature and thermal stress in a slab mold and analyzed effect by cooling system geometry and casting speed quantitatively. In present study, a three-dimensional finite-element thermo-mechanical model with type-switched element is transformed from previous heat-transfer finite-element model [9l, and mold deformation is simulated in order to shed light on thermo-mechanical behavior with special thermal conditions and different mold geometry at high casting speed."

Jan 1, 2013

By Nagy El-Kaddah

"One of the emerging technologies for the production of ultra-clean metals is electromagnetic filtration. The theory and the mechanism of electromagnetic separation of inclusions from molten metal are briefly reviewed along with basic electromagnetic separation systems. This paper focuses on inclusion removal in the induced current separators, with specific reference to a new separator developed at the University of Alabama. A simple analytical model is presented for the analysis of particle separation in such a system. The role of the applied magnetic field on inclusion removal will be discussed. It is shown that particle velocity increases exponentially with increasing magnetic field strength. At moderate field strengths, the velocity of 50 to 100 u. inclusions· are an order of magnitude larger than those achieved by buoyancy. The separator developed at the University of Alabama is described together with experimental results of laboratory and large scale experiments on purification of molten aluminum. These results demonstrate the capability of the system for producing super-clean metals.IntroductionThe nature of extraction, refining and processing of metals is such that oxides and other non-metallic particles will always be present. This is due to the highly reactive nature of metals with oxygen and other non-metallic elements. The presence of these type inclusions in metals, even in minute amounts, can seriously flaw the reliability and performance of the final product. They not only reduce the strength and the stiffness of the metal/1/, they are the reason behind many of manufacturing defects such as porosity in castings, surface and internal cracks in continuously cast ingots and rolled products, etc., which act to cause premature failure of manufactured parts. In fact, for critical applications such as turbine blades, there is virtually no tolerance for inclusions above ten microns in size /2/. Therefore, removal of inclusions from the liquid metal is an essential processing step.The demand for cleaner metals has brought major changes in the technology and practice of metal refining and casting. Inclusion removal from the melt is currently achieved by passing the melt through a series of melt treatment systems, including induction stirring furnaces, argon-stirred ladle, and ceramic foam and deep-bed filters /3,4/. These systems are generally capable of removing all inclusion particles above 50 microns in diameter, which meets current cleanliness requirements for most applications. However, they may not be able to meet the projected cleanliness levels for critical applications due to kinetic and operational limitations of these systems in removing smaller particles /5/."

Jan 1, 1996