Optical microscopic examination of suspended copper concentrate particles in a flash furnace. Investigation of the reactions in a copper flash smelting shaft. (1st Report).

Evolution of Size and Chemical Composition of Copper Concentrate Particles Oxidized Under Simulated Flash Smelting Conditions

“…Such a trend may be explained in terms of an alternative reaction path in which the smallest particles in the feed undergo rapid melting and collide to each other to create new large droplets during flight. This hypothesis, which has been proposed in the past to explain the oxidation behavior of fine concentrate particles, [9,20,23,25,26] agreed well with other observations regarding the morphology and size of the reacted particles, and is discussed in Section III-D of this paper.…”

“…The efficiency of such collisions to produce new agglomerates was assumed to be dependent on the particle temperature. The model predictions showed fair agreement with the experimental trends observed by Kimura et al [25] and Kemori et al [26] in a pilot-scale facility.…”

“…With the exception of the works by Jorgensen, [9] Kimura et al, [25] and Kemori et al, [26] the abovementioned studies have addressed the size changes experienced by the particles as secondary responses of otherwise kinetic studies in which the major focus was the chemical and morphological transformations experienced by the particles. The experimental measurement of the size changes along the trajectory of the particle population is relevant because it may provide additional clues on the reaction path followed by the particles during flight.…”

“…Regarding plant operation data, Kimura et al [25] and Kemori et al [26] collected samples at several positions along the reaction shaft of a pilot-scale flash smelting reactor. The authors found that both the mean size and the amount of sulfur eliminated from the particles increased along the reaction shaft.…”

“…And second, to correlate such responses with the chemical transformations experienced by the particles and with experimental data reported in the literature. [9,26] To accomplish this goal, an experimental program was followed as described below. Figure 2 shows the experimental setup used in this study.…”