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Extension of Lance Life by Change of Height of Lances in the Smelting Furnace of Mitsubishi Process

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Abstract

A Mitsubishi process, which pertains to continuous Cu production, involves a smelting furnace, cleaning furnace, and converting furnace connected in series. One of the main issues pertaining to the smelting furnace is the frequent interruption of operations required to allow the inspection and replacement of lances, because lances are frequently fractured. The present study was aimed at modifying the operating conditions of the smelting furnace to suppress lance fractures. A numerical model was developed to simulate the transport phenomena in the furnace, including multi-phase behaviors. The simulation results showed that the lances were exposed to a severely erosive atmosphere with high temperatures. Further calculation indicated that raising the positions of the lances could lower the temperature of the lances, and reducing the occurrence of splashed melt, which contains erosive sulfides. The smelting furnace was operated under the conditions of the raised lance height and attentively monitored for several months. It was confirmed that by implementing such a change of the lance heights, the occurrence of lance failures has been considerably reduced without notably affecting the reaction ability of the smelting furnace.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge LS-Nikko Co. for supporting the present study and permitting to publish.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-742, Republic of Korea

    Sung-Mi Lim & Kyung-Woo Yi

  2. Division of Metallurgy R&D, LS-Nikko Copper Inc., 148 Sanam-ro, Onsan-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 689-892, Republic of Korea

    Soo-Sang Park

  3. Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-742, Republic of Korea

    Kyung-Woo Yi

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  1. Sung-Mi Lim
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  2. Soo-Sang Park
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Correspondence to Kyung-Woo Yi.

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Lim, SM., Park, SS. & Yi, KW. Extension of Lance Life by Change of Height of Lances in the Smelting Furnace of Mitsubishi Process. Met. Mater. Int. 27, 3721–3729 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12540-020-00712-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12540-020-00712-x

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