Air atomization of metallurgical slags for production of a slag by-product, heat recovery, and metal recovery

每年产生的冶金炉渣超过6亿吨。虽然这种材料经常用于某些应用，但有许多机会从中生产各种更高附加值的产品。此外，从金属提取/精炼过程中残留在渣中的渣和有价值金属的热能通常不能回收。冶金工业高度期望一种能够将炉渣转化为高价值产品，同时回收其能量和金属价值的技术，并且该技术将对该工业和整个社会具有巨大的经济和环境效益。 * 本研究将通过空气研究炉渣的雾化，以获得用于以下目的的基础知识：（a）针对各种产品（例如绝缘材料、磨料产品和水泥原料）定制雾化炉渣的特性，（B）建立在相同工艺中从高温炉渣回收热量的可能性，和（c）确定炉渣中有价值的金属组分可以回收的条件。这项工作将在Hatch作为行业合作伙伴的大力支持下进行，为期3年。* 这项工作的结果将有利于加拿大的黑色金属和有色金属工业，减少能源消耗，提高金属产量和/或降低总的生产成本。这些好处直接或间接地影响到加拿大的经济。此外，将炉渣转化为有价值的产品为行业和运营区域带来经济和环境效益，因为固体废物量减少。除了经济和环境效益外，拟议的工作还将通过培训冶金和资源加工领域的专家，对矿物和金属工业产生社会影响。**

Metallurgical slags are generated at the rate of over 600 million tonnes per year. Although the material is often used in some applications, there are numerous opportunities for producing a variety of higher value-added products from it. Further, thermal energy of slag and valuable metals that remain in the slag from the metal extraction/refining process are usually not recovered. A technology capable of converting slag to a high value product, and at the same time recovering its energy and metal values is highly desired by the metallurgical industry and would have tremendous economic and environmental benefits for the industry and society in general. ****The present research will study atomization of slag by air, to obtain the basic knowledge for the following purposes (a) tailoring the characteristics of atomized slag for various products such as insulation materials, abrasive products, and cement feedstock, (b) establishing the possibility of heat recovery from high temperature slag in the same process, and (c) determining the conditions under which valuable metallic components of slag can be recovered. The work will be carried out as a 3-year activity with the strong support from Hatch as the industry partner. ****The results of this work would be beneficial to both ferrous and non-ferrous industries in Canada with respect to decreasing the energy consumption, increasing the metal yields of the process and/or reducing the overall production costs. These benefits, cascade directly or indirectly into Canada's economy. In addition, conversion of slag to valuable products brings economic and environmental benefits to the industry and the regions of operation as solid waste amount is reduced. Besides the economic and environmental benefits, the proposed work will have a social impact on the minerals and metals industry through training of experts in the fields of metallurgy and resource processing. **