CHM111

RESEARCH ACTIVITY #9
NAME: ADRIAN V.RAGANIT BSEE
METALLURGICAL PROCESSES
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and materials engineering that study the physical and
chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are
called alloys. Metallurgy is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to the
production of metals, and the engineering of metal components for use in products for consumers and
manufacturers. The production of metals involves the processing of ores to extract the metal they
contain, and the mixture of metals, with perhaps other elements, to produce alloys. Metallurgy is
distinguished from the craft of metalworking.
Albion process
The Albion process is an atmospheric leaching process for processing zinc concentrate, refractory copper
and refractory gold. The process is important because it is the most cost effective method currently in
use for extracting both the zinc and lead from concentrates that contain high lead levels (7% or greater).
Zinc and lead often occur together and large remaining zinc deposits contain levels of lead that exceed
what can be economically extracted through other techniques. The Albion process is not sensitive to the
concentration grade and gives favorable recovery with both low grade and dirty concentrates.
Environmental impact is also claimed to be mitigated using this technology because in contrast to other
methods, sulfur dioxide is not emitted and less energy is consumed over all.
The general reaction for the leaching process is:

Bayer process
The Bayer process is the principal industrial means of refining bauxite to produce alumina (aluminum
oxide). Bauxite, the most important ore of aluminum, contains only 3054% aluminum oxide, (alumina),
Al2O3, the rest being a mixture of silica, various iron oxides, and titanium dioxide. The aluminum oxide
must be purified before it can be refined to aluminum metal.

In the Bayer process, bauxite is digested by washing with a hot solution of sodium hydroxide, NaOH, at
175 C, under pressure. This converts the aluminum oxide in the ore to soluble sodium aluminate, 2NaAl
(OH)4, according to the chemical equation:
Al2O3 + 2 NaOH + 3 H2O 2 NaAl(OH)4
This treatment also dissolves silica, but the other components of bauxite do not dissolve. Sometimes
lime is added here, to precipitate the silica as calcium silicate. The solution is clarified by filtering off the
solid impurities, commonly with a rotary sand trap, and a flocculent such as starch, to get rid of the fine
particles. The mixture of solid impurities is called red mud. Originally, the alkaline solution was cooled
and treated by bubbling carbon dioxide into it, through which aluminum hydroxide precipitates:
2 NaAl(OH)4 + CO2 2 Al(OH)3 + Na2CO3 + H2O
But later, this gave way to seeding the supersaturated solution with high-purity aluminum hydroxide
(Al(OH)3) crystal, which eliminated the need for cooling the liquid and was more economically feasible:
NaAl(OH)4 Al(OH)3 + NaOH
Then, when heated to 980C (calcined), the aluminum hydroxide decomposes to aluminum oxide, giving
off water vapor in the process:
2 Al(OH)3 Al2O3 + 3 H2O
The left-over NaOH solution is then recycled. This, however, allows gallium and vanadium impurities to
build up in the liquors, so these are extracted.
For bauxites having more than 10% silica, Bayer process becomes infeasible due to insoluble sodium
aluminum silicate being formed, which reduces yield, and another process must be chosen.
A large amount of the aluminum oxide so produced is then subsequently smelted in the HallHroult
process in order to produce aluminum.
Castner process
The Castner process is a process for manufacturing sodium metal by electrolysis of molten sodium
hydroxide at approximately 330C. Below that temperature the melt would solidify, above that
temperature, the metal would start to dissolve in the melt.
Osmond process
Osmond iron (also spelt Osmund and also called Osborn) was wrought iron made by a particular process.
This is associated with the first European production of cast iron in furnaces such as Lapphyttan in
Sweden. Osmond iron was made by melting pig iron in a hearth that is narrower and deeper than typical
finery in an English finery forge. The hearth had a charcoal fire blown with bellows through a tuyere. As
the iron melted, the drops fell though the blast and congealed. They were then lifted with an iron bar
into the blast. As they melted they were caught on the end of a large staff, held in the fire and turned
rapidly so that the drops spread out, forming a ball.
The osmond process was also used in the county of Mark in Westphalia, in southern Germany and
Switzerland.The process was introduced to Wales in connection with the establishment by William
Humfrey and others of wireworks at Tintern in 1566, an enterprise that was shortly afterwards taken
over by the Company of Mineral and Battery Works. Humfrey arranged to bring an expert maker of
Osmond iron, Corslett Tinkhaus, from southwest Westphalia, where the production had reached a high
level of technical proficiency. Tinkhaus arrived in Wales in 1567 and began working at Rhydygwern in
the Glamorgan part of the lordship of Machen. This was where the first Machen Forge was, and he was
evidently making osmond iron there. The iron was apparently forged with a tilt hammer, rather than the
helve hammer, usual in finery forges. This was the raw material for the wireworks at Tintern. Osmond
iron was made at Pontypool in the 18th century to supply wireworks there, and one of the forges there
was still called the 'Osborn Forge' in the 19th century.
Zinc refining
Zinc refining is the process of purifying zinc to super high grade (SHG) zinc, which is at least 99.995%
pure. This process isn't usually required when smelting zinc through electrolysis processes, but is needed
when zinc is produced by pyrometallurgical processes, because it is only 98.5% pure.
There are various refining methods, but the refluxing process is the most commonly used. High purity
zinc is required industrially to avoid zinc pest, a slow distortion and cracking of zinc die castings caused
by impurities precipitating out.
Refluxing process
The New Jersey Zinc Company invented this process in 1930.
The process takes advantage of the relatively low boiling point of zinc (907 C (1,665 F)) as compared to
the impurities being removed in the first "column": iron and aluminum. Therefore, in the first column
the zinc is heated above its boiling point and allowed to rise to a condenser. The other impurities sink to
the bottom in the form of a solid or liquid. There is still lead and cadmium, in the form of vapor,
impurities. In order to remove the lead 2-3% of the vapor is condensed, which draws the majority of the
lead out of the vapor; down to the point where it is only 0.003% of the total contents. Finally the vapor
is pumped into the cadmium column where it is cooled to an intermediate temperature below the
boiling point zinc, but still above the boiling point of cadmium (767 C (1,413 F)). The zinc leaves out the
bottom as a refined liquid, while the cadmium leaves out the top as vapor.
Zinc smelting
Zinc smelting is the process of converting zinc concentrates (ores that contain zinc) into pure zinc. Zinc
smelting has historically been more difficult than the smelting of many other metals, because in
comparison to e.g. iron, zinc has a fairly low boiling point - at the temperatures typically used for
smelting metals, zinc is a gas that will escape from a furnace with the flue gas and be lost, unless specific
measures are taken to prevent that.
The most common zinc concentrate processed is zinc sulfide, which is obtained by concentrating
sphalerite using the froth flotation method. Secondary (recycled) zinc material, such as zinc oxide, is also
processed with the zinc sulfide. Approximately 30% of all zinc produced is from recycled sources.
There are two methods of smelting zinc: the pyrometallurgical process and the electrolysis process. Both
methods are still used. Both of these processes share the same first step: roasting.
Roasting
Roasting is a process of oxidizing zinc sulfide concentrates at high temperatures into an impure zinc
oxide, called "Zinc Calcine". The chemical reactions taking place during the process are:


Electrolysis process
The electrolysis process, also known as the hydrometallurgical process, Roast-Leach-Electrowin (RLE)
process, or electrolytic process, is more widely used than the pyrometallurgical processes.
The electrolysis process consists of 4 steps: leaching, purification, electrolysis, and melting and casting.
Pyrometallurgical processes
There are also several pyrometallurgical processes that reduce zinc oxide using carbon, then distil the
metallic zinc from the resulting mix in an atmosphere of carbon monoxide. The major downfall of any of
the pyrometallurgical process is that it is only 98% pure; a standard composition is 1.3% lead, 0.2%
cadmium, 0.03% iron, and 98.5% zinc.[7] This may be pure enough for galvanization, but not enough for
die casting alloys, which requires special high-grade zinc (99.995% pure). In order to reach this purity the
zinc must be refined.
The four types of commercial pyrometallurgical processes are the St. Joseph Minerals Corporation's
(electrothermic) process, the blast furnace process, the New Jersey Zinc continuous vertical-retort
process, and the Belgian-type horizontal retort process.
Reaction:
The metallurgical processes is all about the is a domain of materials science and materials
engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic
compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. The metallurgical processes is composed of
Albion process, Bayer process, Castner process, Osmond process, Zinc refining & Zinc smelting and
that processes pertain to the process of metals. And that process can help to make a new product by
the use of metals. And those processes are useful to us because it can help us to have new metal
products which we can use in our works and in our everyday life for us to make our lives simpler.