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US 6,576,040 B2Granted
Process and plant with oxygen-enriched air feed for a non-ferrous metal production unit
AssigneeL'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme a Directoire et Conseil de Surveillance pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude
InventorsDidier Magnet, Norbert Rieth
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
All of the air is compressed in a single compressor, which feeds a smelter for smelting ore, a converter for converting matte coming from the smelter and an air separation unit which delivers two oxygen streams for enriching the air. A buffer tank is used to deliver a variable flow of enriched air to the converter.
Claims14
A process for producing a non-ferrous metal comprising the steps of:
- smelting an ore concentrate of said metal in a smelter to form a matte including continuously injecting oxygen-enriched air into the smelter;
- transferring the matte to a converter;
- converting the matte in the converter including injecting oxygen-enriched air with a variable flow rate into the converter;
- compressing all of the air in a single compressor prior to injection into the smelter and the converter, the compressor having a first compression level, a seond compression level and a third compression level;
- transferring some of the compressed air from the compressor to an air separation unit;
- treating the compressed air in the air separation unit to obtain two oxygen streams which are injected into the compressed air injected into the smelter and the converter, respectively;
- and
- storing the compressed air or oxygen-enriched compressed air to be injected into the converter in a buffer tank when consumption of oxygen-enriched air by the converter is below a predetermined threshold and removing the compressed air or oxygen-enriched compressed air from the buffer tank when consumption of oxygen-enriched air by the converter is above said threshold.
5 more elements
A plant for producing a non-ferrous metal comprising
- a smelter for smelting an ore concentrate of a non-ferrous metal to form a matte, the smelter comprising an inlet for receiving a continuous flow of oxygen-enriched air;
- a converter for receiving a matte from the smelter and comprising an inlet for receiving oxygen-enriched air at a variable flow rate;
- an air separation unit comprising outlets connected to the smelter and the converter for delivering oxygen to the smelter and the converter;
- a single air compressor comprising first, second and third lines and connected via the first line to deliver compressed air to the smelter, connected via the second line to deliver compressed air to the air separation unit and connected via the third line to deliver compressed air to the converter;
- and
- a buffer tank connected to the third line of the single air compressor.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.