Comprehensive recovery of metals from cyanidation tailing

Cyanidation tailing is the residue produced in gold plants which use cyanidation to extract gold. It can be used as a secondary resource to recover residual metals that are of great economic value. The cyanidation tailing investigated in this paper was obtained from Shandong Province, China. It contained valuable metals such as chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite and pyrite. In this study, alkaline sodium hypochlorite was used as a regulator in the pretreatment stage. It was proved that the sodium hypochlorite played two roles in the flotation pulp: oxidant and pH regulator. On one hand, sodium hypochlorite oxidized cyanide to cyanate, eliminating the negative effect of residual cyanide towards the environment. On the other hand, with the pH of flotation pulp exceeding 10, sphalerite and pyrite were depressed enormously, which was beneficial to the recovery of chalcopyrite and galena. With the Cu–Pb bulk flotation flowsheet, the cyanidation tailing was processed to obtain qualified Cu concentrate with grade of 13.17% and recovery of 70.00% compared with the original Cu grade of 0.21%. The Cu–Pb tailing was processed to obtain qualified Zn concentrate with grade of 34.72% and recovery of 69.58% compared with the original Zn grade of 0.33%, constituting the comprehensive recovery routing for the cyanidation tailing.     

Numerical and experimental study of the effect of a froth baffle on flotation cell performance

In this work, the effect of a froth baffle on flotation performance is investigated both experimentally and numerically. Flotation experiments with an artificial ore comprised of 80% silica as gangue and 20% limestone as floatable component were carried out to compare the flotation performance of a baffled froth system against an un-baffled froth system. The effect of the baffle’s inclination angle to the horizontal was also studied. Results indicated that a froth baffle has a profound effect on both recovery and grade. The presence of a froth baffle resulted in an increase in grade at the expense of recovery. The decrease in limestone recovery with the introduction of a froth baffle was found to be a function of the baffle’s inclination angle i.e. recovery decreased as the inclination angle becomes more acute. Water recovery as well as entrainment recovery herein represented by silica recovery decreased with decrease in baffle’s inclination angle. Numerical techniques were employed to model the experimental results. The 2D stream function equation/Laplace equation which is known to be adequate in describing froth transport was solved subject to boundary conditions that represent the presence of baffles. A solution was developed using finite difference methods on a rectangular map obtained using Schwarz–Christoffel (SC) mapping. Results from the simulations indicated a change in particle residence time distribution in a manner that reduces spread. The changes in residence time distribution helped in developing an explanation of the experimental data.     

Total Site Hydrogen Integration with fresh hydrogen of multiple quality and waste hydrogen recovery in refineries

This paper proposes a novel method combining Pinch Methodology and waste hydrogen recovery, aiming to minimise fresh hydrogen consumption and waste hydrogen discharge. The method of multiple-level resource Pinch Analysis is extended to the level of Total Site Hydrogen Integration by considering fresh hydrogen sources with various quality. Waste hydrogen after Total Site Integration is further regenerated. The technical feasibility and economy of the various purification approaches are considered, demonstrated with a case study of a refinery hydrogen network in a petrochemical industrial park. The results showed that fresh hydrogen usage and waste hydrogen discharge could be reduced by 21.3% and 67.6%. The hydrogen recovery ratio is 95.2%. It has significant economic benefits and a short payback period for Total Site Hydrogen Integration with waste hydrogen purification. The proposed method facilitates the reuse of waste hydrogen before the purification process that incurs an additional environmental footprint. In line with the Circular Economy principles, hydrogen resource is retained in the system as long as possible before discharge.     

Experimental investigation of supercapacitor based regenerative energy storage for a fuel cell vehicle equipped with an alternator

Recently, researchers have devoted more attention to supercapacitors (SCs) to integrate with batteries in energy storage systems (ESSs) for vehicle applications. In this study, we attempted to characterize the use of SCs in the ESS for a PEM fuel cell vehicle equipped with an alternator to maximize the performance of regenerative braking. We applied lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and SCs as energy storage devices to examine their effect on ESS. Then we used a hysteresis brake to apply controllable braking force on the flywheel to form hybrid braking (HB) and made efforts to study its behavior to suggest a braking control strategy. We also ran the whole system over the rotational speed to cover the range of driving speed. At last, we sized the SCs for the most commonly used fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) in Korea, i.e., Hyundai NEXO, based on the results obtained from the above study by alternator efficiencies.     

Physicochemical and environmental characteristics of alkali leaching residue of wolframite and process for valuable metals recovery

Physicochemical and mineralogical characteristics of an alkali leaching residue of wolframite were studied by XRD, SEM?EDS, chemical phase analysis, mineral liberation analyzer (MLA), and TG?DSC methods. Batch leaching tests, toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) tests and Chinese standard leaching tests (CSLT) were conducted to determine the environmental mobility of toxic elements. The results show that, due to the high contents of W, Fe, Mn, Sn, and Nb, the residue is with high resource value, but the content of a toxic element, As, is also high. The existing minerals of the investigated elements mainly occur as monomer particles, but it is difficult to extract these valuable metals by conventional acid leaching due to their mineral properties. The release of As increases over time in acidic environment. The leaching concentration of all investigated harmful elements through TCLP is within the limiting value, while the leaching concentration of As through CSLT exceeds the limiting value by more than 4 times, so the residue is classified as hazardous solid waste based on the Chinese standard. A process for valuable metals recovery from this residue was proposed. Preliminary experimental results indicated that the main valuable metals could be extracted effectively.     

钙化-酸浸提钒沉钒母液中锰的回收

对钙化?酸浸提钒沉钒母液中锰资源的回收，一方面可以提升提钒工艺的经济效益，另一方面可避免母液循环时锰浓度不断累积而影响氧化钒产品质量，从而有助于实现母液闭路循环而提升全流程的环境效益。本工作提出了采用草酸沉淀法高效回收沉钒母液中的Mn2+，考察溶液体系pH值、草酸加量系数、反应温度和时间对锰回收率及沉淀产物物相组成的影响，以及草酸沉淀分离锰后母液的循环次数对钒浸出过程的影响。结果表明，草酸沉淀法可高效分离沉钒母液中的Mn2+，在溶液体系pH=4.0、草酸加量系数为1.5、反应温度为50℃、反应时间为60 min的条件下，锰回收率达94.33%，所得产物为纯度大于98%的水合草酸锰，为片状晶体，并呈花簇状生长。将脱锰后的沉钒母液循环至酸浸段，对钒浸出率及浸出液中锰的浓度没有明显影响，表明该方法有助于实现钙化?酸浸提钒中废水的闭路循环。     

基于钠基吸附剂的烟气脱碳系统余热利用研究

针对基于钠基固体吸附剂的燃烧后脱碳技术应用于燃煤电厂后综合能耗偏高的问题，本文提出与供热机组结合的碳捕集/供热双机组系统，利用低温热网回水回收系统低品位余热。依据双机组的抽汽混合与否构建了两种系统流程，分析了两种不同方案下的系统性能。研究结果表明，在有效回收脱碳系统碳酸化反应余热后，独立抽汽方案中碳捕集综合能耗从4.05GJ/t CO₂降低至1.26GJ/t CO₂，而混合抽汽方案中碳捕集综合能耗降低至1.13GJ/t CO₂，同时双机组系统的热网供热量较单供热机组分别增加了67.5%和72.8%，经济效益显著。分析了混合抽汽方案的系统中碳捕集综合能耗随相关运行参数变化的规律，发现碳酸化反应温度和热网回水温度因为能够直接影响系统余热利用程度因而更易对碳捕集综合能耗产生影响。     

高大软岩边坡下开采程序研究

结合胜利煤田发生大型滑坡的露天矿地质赋存条件，以高大软岩边坡条件下松散物料压覆的煤炭资源安全高效回收为目标，提出采用“横采内排-尾随压脚”的开采程序方案将工作线从直线型变为“Π”字型。从地表水与地下水防治、边坡安全监测等方面提出了保证工程顺利实施的安全保障措施。计算分析了采用“横采内排-尾随压脚”开采程序方案的可观资源回收量及减少运距和提升高度带来的经济效益，同时对矿山实现可持续发展和安全开采的价值进行了预测。     

Quantitative analysis of fuel-saving potential for waste heat recovery system integrated with hybrid electric vehicle

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) with low fuel consumption, low emissions, and long driving range are the ideal transition models between conventional fuel vehicles and pure electric vehicles. The growing demand for increased vehicle efficiency has motivated the introduction of waste heat recovery (WHR) technology in the automotive industry, with the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) as the most promising measure for recycling waste energy. Currently, only a few studies have been conducted to couple HEV and WHR systems. These studies have mainly focused on the hybrid powertrain control strategy, but lack quantitative methods to comprehensively analyze the fuel-saving potential due to the WHR system. In this study, an HEV-WHR integrated system that includes a mechanism-based dynamic model of ORC and a hybrid diesel-electric truck model is established. Further, a quantitative evaluation method that simultaneously considers the negative integrated effects (increased vehicle weight and increased exhaust back pressure) and the positive impact values of the engine, motor, and WHR system on the fuel-saving potential is proposed. Finally, the influence of two environmental factors (wind speed and ambient temperature) on the fuel-saving performance is analyzed. The results reveal that under the standard highway driving cycle (HWY), the negative integrated effects reduce the ideal fuel-saving potential of the HEV-WHR system from 6.10% to 5.42%. However, the optimized performances of the engine, motor, and WHR system improve the fuel-saving rate by 0.39%, 1.81%, and 3.22%, respectively. The results also indicate that the fuel-saving potential increases from 1.62% to 8.60% with increasing wind speed and decreases from 6.70% to 4.25% with increasing ambient temperature.     

苏里格气田盒8段致密砂岩气储层滑溜水压裂渗吸实验研究

以鄂尔多斯盆地苏里格气田盒8段致密砂岩气藏储层为研究对象,对其天然岩心进行了室内自发渗吸模拟实验,具体选择采用质量法和体积法,分析研究了影响致密砂岩储层自吸的因素。实验表明,渗透率、温度因素对致密砂岩岩心渗吸采收率的影响较大,且都为积极影响。