Modelling Metallurgical Furnaces—Making the Most of Modern Research and Development Techniques

High-Accuracy Simulations to Model Pyrometallurgical Processes in a Secondary Lead Reverberatory Furnace

“…Although case (8) appears to be the most promising approach, the actual code performance would have to be tested for this set of models to ensure that it is able to simulate the relevant physics. Furthermore, as development of multiphase CFD solvers increases, some of the models that are currently incompatible could be used in conjunction with each other, such as the transfer of solid LMP or DEM particles to VOF.…”

“…Previous studies of this industry have shown that optimally designed reverberatory-style furnaces can operate at improved efficiencies of 40% or greater [6], which is a promising result to work toward for the nonferrous metals industry as whole. Some standard methodologies for designing and investigating nonferrous pyrometallurgical furnaces are empirical analysis, simulation of experiments based on similarity theory, thermodynamic and kinetic modeling, and numerical analysis [7,8]. Often, a combination of these techniques is used.…”

Modelling of liquid phases and metal distributions in copper converters: transferring process fundamentals to plant practice

“…In describing recent advances in the field (Jak 2018a) forshadows the development of ‘Virtual Reactor’ models for pyrometallurgical processing systems. These models would incorporate a number of key components (Jak 2018b) including: Thermodynamic models to predict the thermodynamic direction, driving force, extent and enthalpies of reactions (the latter defining the heat balance); and phase equilibria to describe the states (liquid, solid or gaseous), chemical compositions and proportions of the phases present in each of the process stream; Physical property models to predict viscosities, surface tension, densities and other relevant physico-chemical properties; Micro-kinetics at a scale up to 20–100 micron taking into account the influence of the heterogeneous gas / solid / liquid reactions taking place in pyrometallurgical reactors; Macro-kinetic models to describe fluid flow and heat transfer at the full reactor scale; Plant data accuracy providing reliable information on thermochemistry of the all input and output streams including, but not limited to, temperature, composition, mineralogy; Plant control accuracy to ensure stable operation at selected optimised conditions, and Performance of the reactor within the overall multi-reactor flowsheet. …”

“…The above discussions illustrate that many different types of process models can be developed with different targets and levels of complexity. In seeking to develop a quantitative predictive model that is suited for the purpose intended, it is essential to identify and make clear at the outset the correlation between (i) the model use, (ii) required complexity, accuracy and the range of applicability, and (iii) required data, sampling, development and implementation efforts needed to achieve targeted functionality and use of the model (Jak 2018a).…”