Matte Granulation via Gas Spray Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
The direct quenching of high-temperature melted matte with pressurized cold water in the copper-refining process leads to explosions, noise pollution, equipment erosion, and environmental contamination due to rapid chemical reactions and vaporization, which threaten operational safety and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A non-noise matte granulation technique where high-temperature melted matte is dispersed into fine drops by low-pressure saturated vapor or compressed gas before contacting water, allowing for increased heat dissipation and preventing explosions, using gas-spray facilities and a dehydration-and-transportation system for cooling and collection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If high-temperature melted matte is directly quenched with pressurized cold water, then cooling efficiency is improved, but chemical reactions and explosions occur causing safety threats and noise pollution
Solution Approach 1:
The matte is dispersed into fine drops before quenching, and the drops are pre-cooled by ambient air during fall. This preliminary dispersion and pre-cooling action prevents direct high-temperature contact with water, eliminating explosive reactions while maintaining cooling efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The continuous flow of melted matte is segmented into numerous fine drops through gas-spray facilities. This segmentation increases surface area for heat dissipation and prevents localized explosive reactions that occur with direct water quenching of bulk material.
2Device complexity
If direct water quenching is used, then granulation process is simple, but noise pollution exceeds 110 dB and equipment erosion occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The matte is dispersed and pre-cooled in air before water contact, which eliminates explosive vaporization and the associated noise. This preliminary action reduces noise to below 80 dB while adding only moderate process complexity with gas-spray facilities.
3Speed
If direct water quenching is applied, then cooling speed is high, but fine matte particles are generated that pollute environment and abrade equipment
Solution Approach 1:
The matte is segmented into controlled fine drops through gas dispersion before cooling. This controlled segmentation allows rapid cooling while preventing the generation of excessive ultra-fine particles that cause pollution and equipment abrasion.
Solution Approach 2:
The physical state and temperature parameters of matte are changed progressively through air cooling before water quenching. This parameter change sequence achieves rapid cooling while controlling particle size distribution to minimize harmful fine dust generation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Prevents chemical reactions and explosions, reduces noise pollution to less than 80 dB, improves matte quality, and enhances operational safety and reliability while minimizing environmental impact.
Implementation Method 1
gas is sprayed by gas-spray facilities to the mattes; ejected gas disperse the melted mattes flowing down through the chute into large amounts of tiny drops, and at the same time, the gas mentioned above cools the dispersed tiny drops to semi-melting or solid copper grains
Implementation Method 2
copper grains are quenched by pressurized cold water; finally, copper grains drop to the cold-water pond along with the pressurized cold water for further cooling
Implementation Method 3
pressurized cold water is sprayed from stirring sprayers to conduct stirring heat-exchange, and the produced steam is discharged to ambient air through discharge chimney
Data Source
AI summary
The invention makes public an environment-friendly non-noise matte granulation technique. Melted matte flows out from the chute, then gas is sprayed on the matte through spray facilities; the gas disperses the melted matte into a large amount of tiny liquid drops, and cools the dispersed tiny drops to semi-melted or solid copper grains; in the following dropping course, the copper grains are quenched by pressurized cold water; finally, copper grains drop to the cold-water pond along with the pressurized cold water for further cooling, and the produced sand-like mattes are sent to the next procedure through dehydration-and-transportation system. It can overcome explosion and prevent chemical reaction in quenching, reduce noise pollution, and has the properties of simple procedure and easy operation to settle the problems existed in water quenching of matte.