Flowsheet Options for Cobalt Recovery in African Copper–cobalt Hydrometallurgy Circuits

The price of cobalt has increased by some 450% in the past two years, mainly due to increasing demand for lithium–ion batteries. With an official 2017 production of 64 kt, the Democratic Republic of Congo produces more than half of the world’s cobalt. African Copperbelt operations have traditionally focused on copper production; however, it has now become imperative to also consider cobalt recovery from these ores. A plethora of processing routes is possible. Most hydrometallurgical flowsheets recover cobalt from the raffinate of the low-grade copper solvent-extraction circuit. Downstream purification processes include sequential precipitation with a variety of reagents, solvent extraction, and ion exchange. Product choices include hydroxide, carbonate, sulfate, and metal cathode. This study assesses technical and economic advantages and limitations of various approaches to the hydrometallurgical processing of cobalt in an African context.     

A preliminary analysis of the biomass energy production potential in Africa in 2025 considering projected land needs for food production

This paper provides a preliminary examination of present and projected land use in Africa to estimate the potential availability of land in 2025 for use in producing biomass energy. Fifty countries are included in the analysis. Future cropland requirements are projected on the basis of average African cereal crop yield improvements since 1972, and minimum nutritional requirements are assumed to be met in 2025 without increasing imports above present absolute levels. Cropland, natural forests and other wilderness areas are excluded from consideration for biomass energy use. Woody biomass energy yields are estimated on the basis of nationally averaged precipitation, using a yield-precipitation correlation for commercial eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. The total African bioenergy production potential in 2025 is estimated to be about 18 EJ per year for a set of baseline assumptions that includes planting only 10% of the available non-crop, non-forest, non-wilderness area with biomass energy crops. A preliminary cost assessment suggests that much of this biomass could be produced for $1–2 GJ⁻¹. A number of uncertainties in the modelling assumptions are examined through a sensitivity analysis. Despite limitations in the model used here, one robust conclusion is that Africa as a whole has a significant biophysical potential for producing biomass energy. This result suggests that more detailed country and sub-country level assessments would be worthwhile to understand better the practical prospects for future biomass energy production in Africa.     

Decision support for AIDS control programmes in Eastern Africa

The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) constitutes the worst hazard to health care systems in Eastern Africa. Misallocation of scarce resources of AIDS Control Programmes will unavoidably lead to additional infections and casualties. The following paper discusses a system dynamics model which allows to assess the impact of different interventions on a pattern population in Eastern Africa. It becomes obvious that short- and long-term consequences of these programmes differ significantly. The optimal allocation of resources, therefore, is highly complex and calls for decision support systems to sustain AIDS control programmes.     

Upgrading coal-derived liquids to diesel fuel

Distilled fractions of a coal-derived liquid from the H-Coal process were upgraded to diesel fuel by catalytic hydrotreatment. The total hydrotreated products were distilled into naphtha (<180°C) and diesel fuel fractions (>180°C) and the diesel fractions were analysed for hydrocarbon-type composition, hydrogen content and some diesel fuel properties. GC—MS-analyses were carried out on the hydrocarbon-type fractions to identify individual chemical compounds. To investigate the effect of different distillation cut points on diesel fuel yield and properties, cut points for one hydrotreated product were varied. The diesel fuel cetane numbers were correlated with percentage hydrogen, total aromatics and saturates. Cetane numbers above 40 were obtained for diesel fuels containing (i) more than 75% saturates, (ii) less than 15% total aromatics and (iii) a hydrogen content above 12.8%. Compounds identified by GC—MS-analyses (in the diesel fractions) were typical aromatic and cycloparaffin compounds. Normal-and iso-paraffin compounds were not detected. By varying the distillation cut point from 135 to 180°C, the cetane number of the residual diesel fraction improved from 37 to 44. This increase is ascribed to the removal of aromatic compounds in the 135–180°C boiling point range.     

非洲油气勘探区战略选择建议

非洲不同类型的沉积盆地主要可归纳为：古、中生代挠曲盆地，中、新生代大陆边缘断陷盆地，板内裂谷盆地和大陆边缘进积三角洲盆地。通过盆地油气成藏条件地质综合评价、不同勘探阶段的类比和最终勘探潜力分析，对非洲的沉积盆地进行了划分，在此基础上，总结出非洲油气勘探区选择应遵循的原则。对于油气勘探长期战略选区，原则上，优选低成本油气远景区，即使存在高风险，但亦可获得高回报；对于油气勘探中期发展策略选区，应该寻找地质条件好的油气资源区，投资中短期高利润项目；对于油气勘探中短期发展策略选区，一般应优选中低成本、低风险、低利润且短期能获得油气发现和勘探突破的有利油气勘探区。图1表3参5     

Environmental Effects of Hydro-Electric Power Generation in Africa and the Potential for Artificial Floods

Electricity is a fundamental requirement for economic growth, and hydro-electric power is often thought to be environmentally benign. However, the construction and operation of many hydro-power dams in Africa have had significant negative impacts on the environment and rural economies. Reduced downstream flooding has destroyed fisheries and starved the floodplain soils of moisture and nutrients. Often the worst-affected areas have no electrification and therefore do not benefit from power generation. New dams which are planned in Kenya and Tanzania have been specifically designed to make flood releases. This will allow electricity to be generated whilst maintaining a dynamic flooding pattern for the short-term economic importance of fisheries and agriculture and the longer-term importance of soil fertility and biodiversity. Involvement of local community representatives in deciding when flood waters should be released on the Phongolo River in South Africa has resulted in substantial benefits to floodplain users.     

浅谈不同时期南非政府办公建筑的发展特征

南非的社会发展经历了殖民主义统治时期，种族主义统治时期和民主政府统治时期3个历史阶段。社会体制的变化深深影响了南非建筑的发展。尤其体现在政府办公建筑的形式上，本文按照历史发展的顺序，通过列举实例的方式，分别对这3个时期政府办公建筑的风格与布局牲进行了的探讨。     

Intra-seasonal NDVI change projections in semi-arid Africa

Early warning systems (EWS) tend to focus on the identification of slow onset disasters such famine and epidemic disease. Since hazardous environmental conditions often precede disastrous outcomes by many months, effective monitoring via satellite and in situ observations can successfully guide mitigation activities. Accurate short term forecasts of NDVI could increase lead times, making early warning earlier. This paper presents a simple empirical model for making 1 to 4 month NDVI projections. These statistical projections are based on parameterized satellite rainfall estimates (RFE) and relative humidity demand (RHD). A quasi-global, 1 month ahead, 1° study demonstrates reasonable accuracies in many semi-arid regions. In Africa, a 0.1° cross-validated skill assessment quantifies the technique's applicability at 1 to 4 month forecast intervals. These results suggest that useful projections can be made over many semi-arid, food insecure regions of Africa, with plausible extensions to drought prone areas of Asia, Australia and South America.     

北非库弗腊盆地油气成藏条件及地质风险初探

库弗腊盆地是在稳定结晶基底上形成的大型古生代克拉通内坳陷盆地。油气地质评价认为，该盆地发育始寒武系一自垩系的浅海相与河流相交互沉积，依据钻井、露头、孢粉组合可将其沉积序列划分为8套地层单元。推测盆地存在3套烃源岩：始寒武系泥岩、奥陶系泥岩、志留系Tanezzuft组泥岩，其中Tanezzuft组泥岩是盆地最有可能的烃源岩。库弗腊盆地可能存在奥陶系一志留系和始寒武系两套成藏组合，盆地模拟结果表明盆地的两个沉积中心（uri槽和Kalanshiyu槽）的烃源岩已达到生油窗范围，是否存在有效烃源岩是决定该盆地油气潜力的主要因素和油气勘探的最大地质风险所在。图4参18