2014-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2014 Volume 3: Non-ferrous & Iron_Steel
| Editors: | Kongoli F |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2014 |
| Pages: | 522 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-987820-05-8 |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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Physical and CFD modelling study of mixing and mass transfer phenomena in subsonic-sonic transition operated Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) - Peirce-Smith (PS) converters
Deside Chibwe1; Guven Akdogan1;1UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH, Stellenbosch, South Africa (zuid Afrika);
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 370
Topic: 3
Abstract:
This study presents a physical and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of mixing and mass transfer in a 0.5 scale slice water model of a Peirce-Smith (PS) converter used in the Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) converting operation. Mixing and solid-liquid mass transfer characteristics behaviour of PS-converter was investigated in the transition from current subsonic converter operation to envisaged sonic converter operation. Sonic converter operation is envisaged to alleviate inefficiencies associated with current bubbling regime operation from both process and energy perspective. The results of the work is meant to provide understanding of the relatively small industrial PS-converter behaviour at high pressure operation achieving sonic blowing conditions at tuyere tip for further development of sonic injection technology. To account for the multiphase and turbulence characteristics of the operation, the 3-D simulations were conducted using the volume of fluid (VOF) and realizable k-e turbulence models respectively. A commercial CFD numerical code FLUENT was used to implement the models. In both physical and CFD simulations, water and air were used to simulate matte and injected air/ oxygen-enriched air into PS-converters. A tracer-dispersion technique method was used to measure the mixing time while the calculation of localised mass transfer coefficient (k) and calculated dimensionless turbulence characteristic (Tc) of spaciously placed sintered benzoic acid compacts was used to characterise the mass transfer phenomena. It was concluded that best mixing conditions occurs during the transition from subsonic to sonic injection operation while mass transfer results points to stratified flow in the PS-converter.