Reduced dusting bath method for metallurgical treatment of sulfide materials
AssigneeInco Limited
InventorsCarlos Manuel Diaz, Samuel Walton Marcuson, Anthony Edward Warner, Geoffrey Edwin Osborne
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Abstract
A pyrometallurgical vessel suitable for continuous or semicontinuous smelting and/or conversion of molten base metal sulfide feed materials. The top blown, bottom stirred vessel includes oxidizing gas lances and feed pipes directing their respective contents directly or indirectly into bath eyes opened up in the molten bath by gas injected through porous plugs disposed at the base of the vessel. Low space velocities in the vessel result in reduced dusting.
Claims13
A low dusting method for smelting and/or converting a bath of molten non-ferrous materials, the process comprising:
- a. providing a reactor vessel having a bottom portion, a roof, opposed end walls, and a chamber therebetween;
- b. creating a molten bath of non-ferrous materials in the vessel;
- c. forming at least one bath eye having a sphere of influence thereabout in the molten bath by the injection of gas through the bottom portion of the chamber and below the surface of the molten bath to agitate and bottom stir the molten bath with a rising plume of gas therein;
- d. introducing oxidizing gas directly toward the sphere of influence of a bath eye from above the molten bath for top blowing the molten bath;
- e. drop feeding solid feed directly toward the sphere of influence of a bath eye from above the bath at a minimal gas space velocity of about 0.05 to about 0.5 meters per second to reduce dusting within the reactor;
- f. playing a burner directly toward a sphere of influence into a bath eye;
- and
- g. removing the molten material from the vessel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.