Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing: Environmentally Conscious Plasma Arc Processes for Enhanced Metal Production

在铁金属和有色金属的熔炼过程中，离子熔体如炉渣、助熔剂或冰晶与气体和金属发生反应。这些反应本质上是电化学的，涉及离子和电子之间的电荷转移，通常在渣相中扩散受限。由于炉渣、助熔剂和冰料主要是离子熔体，因此扩散过程由移动较慢的电子物质控制。本研究的目的是通过使用等离子体在渣中提供电子路径来增强渣-金属反应，并评估其在降低渣中氧化铁（FeO）含量和体积，提高产量，耐火寿命和合金元素回收率方面对处理铁熔体的影响程度。初步结果表明，铁碳熔体脱碳所需的FeO百分比可能降低10倍。世界金属的年产量和消费量接近7.5亿吨，其中铁占95%。与金属有关的提取、冶炼、精炼和回收过程产生大量危险和非危险废物，从而对环境产生重大影响。这个项目可以通过大幅减少必须处理的炉渣的体积和铁含量来彻底改变炼钢。它还可以在从铁屑中去除铜和锌以及铜的哑光熔炼方面开辟其他机会，这也将产生重大的经济和环境影响。

9528635 Szekely During smelting of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, ionic melts such as slags, fluxes or mattes react with gases and metals. These reactions are electrochemical in nature involving charge transfer between ionic an electronic species and are often diffusion limited in the slag phase. Since slags, fluxes and mattes are primarily ionic melts, the diffusion process is controlled by the slower moving electronic species. The objective of this research is to enhance the slag-metal reaction by using a plasma to provide an electronic pathway in the slag and assess the magnitude of its impact on processing ferrous melts in terms of lowering iron oxide (FeO) content and volume of the slag, and increasing yield, refractory life and recovery of alloying elements. Preliminary results indicate a potential reduction of ten fold in the percent of FeO needed for decarburization of iron-carbon melt. Annual world production and consumption of metals is close to 750 million tons, of which iron is ninety-five percent. Extraction, smelting, refining and reclaiming processes associated with metals produce large quantities of both hazardous and non-hazardous wastes and thus have a significant impact on the environment. This project could revolutionize steelmaking by dramatically reducing both the volume and the iron content of the slag that must be disposed of. It could also open other opportunities in the removal of copper and zinc from ferrous scraps and in the matte smelting of copper, which would also have a major economic and environmental impact.