A thermodynamic model of nickel smelting and direct high-grade nickel matte smelting processes: Part II. distribution be
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I. INTRODUCTION
THE extractive smelting process consists of a series of steps to eliminate impurities from the objective metal. The controlled behavior of Ni, Cu, Co, As, Sb, and Bi in the nickel smelting process is critical to the success of the operation. So, it is very important to understand the behaviors of the elements, in order to recover valuable metals such as Ni, Cu, and Co or to eliminate detrimental impurities such as As, Sb, and Bi. The thermodynamic model developed previously[1] can be used to predict the behavior of these elements in the nickel smelting process. II. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Four types of operating conditions were investigated at the plant-scale level by INCO Metals Company (Sudburg, Canada), and excellent materials balances were obtained for the furnace.[2] The average accountability for as much as 11 elements (Ni, Cu, Co, Fe, S, As, Bi, Si, Al, Ca, and Mg) was 99.3 pct. The industrial distributions of As, Bi, Ni, Cu, Co, Fe, Si, Ca, Al, and Mg in the four modes were compared with the predicted data from the thermodynamic model in this work, and good agreement was obtained.[1] The content of Fe3O4 in the slag in the four modes was also in agreement with the predicted values.[1] The operation conditions and the compositions of the charges for these test modes were presented in detail.[2] These are necessary for this modeling work. So, the industrial operation conditions and the compositions of the charges in mode 1 of INCO Metals Company[2] are chosen as the conditions of simulation in this work. The content of As, Sb, and Bi in the concentrate was assumed to be 0.1 pct, respectively. The effect of operating conditions on the Ni, Cu, Co, As, Sb, and Bi distributions among the gas, matte, and slag are simulated, and the results are shown in the following text.
¨ TZ, PENGFU TAN, Ph.D., Research Fellow, and DIETER NEUSCHU Professor, Dr. -Ing, are with the Institute of Theoretical Process Metallurgy, Aachen University of Technology (RWTH Aachen), Kopernikusstr. 16, D-52056 Aachen, Germany. Manuscript submitted March 17, 2000. METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B
A. Matte Grade The matte grade is the most important operating parameter in the nickel smelting process. The fractional distributions of As, Sb, Bi, Ni, Cu, and Co among the gas, slag, and matte phases are calculated with varying matte grades and a 96.8 pct oxygen enrichment in the blowing air at 1573 K. The results are shown in Figure 1. The terms (X)g , 具X典Sl , and {X}Mt represent the fractional distributions of X in the gas, slag, and matte phases, respectively. The content of Fe3O4 in the slag vs the matte grade is shown in Figure 2. The values of (As)g and (Sb)g decrease as the matte grade increases. The value of (Bi)g increases with increasing matte grade up to a level of 25 pct (Cu ⫹ Ni) in the matte, then decreases slightly with increasing matte grade up to 45 pct (Cu ⫹ Ni) in the matte, and then increases in the higher region. The values of 具As典Sl and 具Sb典Sl increase as the matte grade increases to 35 and 45 pct, re
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