Summary
This paper discusses the successful application of the computer method General Energy and Material-Balance Simulator (GEMS) in hydrometallurgy. GEMS is especially useful in handling material and energy balance calculations, of any complexity, for multistage, multicomponent countercurrent decantation. The main advantage of this computer system, developed at the University of Idaho, is the flexibility of application. The user can arrange a group of basic process blocks or subroutines in various configurations to describe the unit operations involved in the mill processes. Two sample problems, differing in complexity, in extractive metallurgy of CuSO4 are here solved to demonstrate GEMS’ flexibility. All the GEMS results agree with results from other proposed models. A simulation of an entire uranium mill is carried out, and various alternatives considered to demonstrate GEMS’ usefulness for design. Improvements for an actual operating mill, and for new designs are suggested based on GEMS calculations.
Although this article uses uranium processing to demonstrate GEMS’ usefulness in calculating material and energy balances, GEMS can be used in the same way for all hydrometallurgical processes.
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Izurieta, H., Edwards, L.L. The General Energy and Material-Balance Computer System (GEMS) Applied to Hydrometallurgical Processes. JOM 32, 23–31 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03354519
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03354519