The present invention provides a method (100a) and
system for controlling the operation of a
chemical plant arranged to carry out a
chemical process which produces iron and / or
manganese in elemental form from respective oxides thereof using liquid
sodium as a reductant of the respective oxides and which can also produce an
oxide or
hydroxide of at least one of
calcium,
magnesium and iron from a
carbonate mineral of at least one of
calcium,
magnesium and iron. The method (100a) comprises assigning (103a) a respective value to the no. of mol of each one of the
chemical species involved in the
chemical process as starting materials and products thereof, subject to constraints which are derived from the law of conservation of
mass of the constituent elements of those
chemical species. The method also assigns (103b) respective values to the nos. of mol of
chemical species which are consumed during the
chemical process by electrolytic or thermochemical
decomposition into their constituent elements, subject to another set of constraints which are derived from the minimum requirements for these constituent elements by the chemical process itself. The former set of constrains allows the materials balance of the process to be controlled and the latter set of constraints allows the
energy balance of the process to be controlled. The method then comprises operating (104) the
chemical plant to carry out the process according to the values thus assigned. Respective values may be assigned (103a, 103b) to the nos. of mol of a preferred subset of the chemical species involved in the process as starting materials and products thereof and / or a preferred subset of the chemical species which are consumed during the process by electrolytic or thermochemical
decomposition into their constituent elements, before values are then assigned to remaining ones of the nos. of mol of other chemical species not in the preferred subset. This allows the
chemical plant to be operated in such a way as to optimise its performance relative to such variables as the respective nett amounts of a preferred one or more of the materials it consumes and / or produces, the energy efficiency of a part or the whole of the chemical process and / or its
cost effectiveness, for example. Amongst other things, the constraints also ensure that the chemical process always produces less
carbon dioxide than instead calcining a
carbonate mineral of at least one of
calcium,
magnesium and iron to produce its corresponding
oxide, and that in a large number of cases, it can produce no
carbon dioxide at all. Also disclosed is a graphical technique which may be used to assign the respective values to the nos. of mol of the chemical species involved in the chemical process subject to the stated constraints, whereby the method and
system of the invention may be implemented.