Smelting furnace melt zone wall modification to cope higher production rate operation

PT Smelting adopted the Mitsubishi Continuous Technology for its copper smelter plant which has been operating since 1998. Through a series of expansion projects, the plant annual production capacity increased gradually from 200,000 to 300,000 tons of copper. There were no significant modification works for smelter plant to reach the 50% additional capacity. It was mostly achieved by intensifying the furnaces operation by increasing oxygen content in the furnaces blowing-air. Intensive smelting furnace operation has caused shorter campaign life of some furnace refractory, especially the melt zone wall on the furnace outlet side. During each furnace relining, which is done once in every two years, severe wall erosion was found. The worst condition occurred in year 2007 when the smelting furnace experienced a melt leak through the eroded wall beneath the bath-line coolers. During the 2008 furnace relining, a modification was performed by installing vertical coolers behind the melt zone wall The additional v...