CHPR4405: PARTICLE MECHANICS AND SOLIDS HANDLING

WHY IMPORTANT IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION?

INDUSTRIES THAT INVOLVE IN PARTICULATE MATERIALS PROCESSING ARE MANY SUCH AS:
Crude Oil and Gas Refining and Petrochemicals
Foods and Beverages
Pharmaceuticals
Biotechnology tissue engineering, vaccine production
semiconductor and electronic
nanotechnology
Paints, papers and coating
mining and minerals processing
water treatment and water quality monitoring


Mineral processing and Oil and Gas Proceessing industries are very large and hence very important
in WA employing many chemical engineers


Mineral Processing:
crushing and grinding jaw crusher, Sag Mill
hydrometallurgy flotation, leaching, electrowinning, solvent extraction
Pyrometallurgy smelting
Other operations slurry thickening and sedimentation, pumping and pipeline transportation














































Micro Brewery
Gold Processing carbon-in-pulp (CIP) process





Gold ore

LEACHING

ADSORPTION ON ACTIVATED CHARCOL
LOADED CHARCOL EFFLUENT

STRIPPING BARREN SOLUTION
POND
STRIPPING
CHARCOAL STRIPPING SOLUTION

REACTIVATION ELECTROLYTIC DEPOSITION ELECTROLYTE

GOLD CATHODE SMELTING DORE BULLION




Minerals

Naturally occurring compounds with a commercial value


Gold and Platinum : found principally in nature in metallic form

Silver, copper & mercury: in the form of sulphides, carbonates chlorides


Minerals name

PbS (galena or lead sulphide)

ZnS (sphalerite)

SnO
2
(cassiterite)

Cu
2
S (chalcocite)

FeS
2
(pyrite)




Metallic ore processing converts minerals to metals such as Cu, Pb, Zn, Sn, Ni

Ore body

Defined as an accumulation of minerals in sufficient quantity as to be capable of
economic extraction.





Values minor component, valuable minerals




Gangue major component, waste mineral


Factors which controls the suitability of a deposit for economic mining and
processing:

Location and size of deposits
Grade of Ore (metal content and distribution)
Financial aspects
Mining cost
Cost of ancillary services
Amenability of ore to treatment
Demand and value of metal












Mineral processing involves the physical separation of the valuable minerals from
the gangue to produce a concentrate of value; and tailings containing mostly
gangue.






Mining





Ore




Mineral processing




Concentrate Tailing
(value) ( gangue)




Extractive Metallurgy






Metal




Fundamental Operations in Mineral Processing

a) liberation of value minerals from gangue


comminution
(size reduction)



crushing




grinding

b) separation of liberated value from gangue by using their physical and chemical
differences which includes:


specific gravity
optical, radioactive
hydrophilic, hydrophobic, wetability
magnetic
electrical conductivity
Liberation

Free values from the gangue material by size reduction of the ore








Ore



Crusher
(+)

Screen (-)



Grinding (wet)


(+)
Classification
(-)


Separation


Concentrate middling Tailings









Degree of liberation =

(amount of free value minerals in the comminuted ore)/ (total value mineral in the
total ore)



Concentration (eg flotation)

Separation of liberated values from the gangue




Comminution



Separation




Concentrate Tailings



Extractive Metallurgy



Metal









Recovery

=(metal recovered from the concentrate)/ (total metal in the ore)


Grade or Assay mineral content





Recovery













Grade of concentrate

1/(cost of extraction)




Low grade ore required high degree of recovery for the operation to be
economically feasible.










Crushing, Grinding and Sizing

Primary Crushers

Heavy duty machines, reduce runs of mine ores (1.5m) down to transportable feed to
secondary crusher (10-20cm)

Types:

Jaw crushers
Gyratory crushers

Jaw Crusher

Features two plates set at an acute angle to each other, one jaw is pivoted so
that it swings relative to the other fixed jaw.





Operation of a Blake Crusher

1. The swinging jaw is pivoted from the top, moving quickly at first then more slowly
with increasing power towards the end.


2. The minerals fed are crushed. The fragments fall but their fall is arrested at a new
rest position in the jaw where it is gripped and crushed again. This continues all
the way to the discharge area of the crushed.













3. the flywheel attached to the drive is necessary to store the energy on the idling
half of the stroke and delivers it on the crushing half.

4. Angle between the jaws <
o
26

5. Maximum amplitude of swing of the jaw or ``throw 1-7cm

6. Speed of swinging jaw 100-350 rev/min

7. Feed capacity 725 ton/hr

8. Maintenance is easy


SECONDARY CRUSHER

Reduces particle from size <15cm to 0.05-2cm

Cone crusher
Crushing rolls
Hammer mills






Cone Crusher








Cone is not suspended as in gyrotory crusher but is supported in a curved
universal bearing


The bowl or crushing shell flares, providing an increasing cross sectional area
towards the discharge end. This prevents choking, thus high capacity is possible
(1100ton/hr 3000ton/hr)

Throw 5x primary crusher (1-7cm)

Operates at higher speed (300-500rev/min)





Grinding (wet)


Sag Mill (a ball mill) with large diameter to length ratio




Inside of Sag Mill picture of a Sag Mill




Principle of Sag Mill grinding
produce a slurry with the desired degree of minerals liberation
use 80 % of materials passes through a certain size (P
80
) as the indicator
slurry with particle size distribution ranging from a few to several hundreds
micron
feed stock for flotation operations.