Premium
Application and optimisation studies of a zinc electrowinning process simulation
Author(s) -
Mahon Michael,
Peng Spencer,
Alfantazi Akram
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.21880
Subject(s) - electrowinning , zinc , electrolyte , energy consumption , process (computing) , electrolytic cell , materials science , process engineering , computer science , environmental science , metallurgy , chemistry , engineering , electrical engineering , electrode , operating system , electrolysis
Using existing models, a zinc electrowinning cell house was simulated including electrowinning cells, electrolyte storage, and cooling towers. Optimisations and applications of the simulation were investigated as applicable to a cell house. Conditions were identified for achieving optimal current efficiency, energy consumption, and zinc production rate for a single cell and the entire cell house. The minimal energy consumption of the cell house was found to be larger than single cells primarily due to the lack of available control of the acid concentration. Water loss through cooling towers and the movement of a well‐mixed non‐interacting impurity was also tracked.