Design and implementation of an energy-saving melting reactor

A physico-chemical model of zinc recovery, in the melt ideal mixing regime, has been developed. From the cold model experiments, the melt complete mixing time criterial equation is derived. Based on it, the parameters of pilot plant were calculated and consequently the experiments for validation were conducted. The value of specific volumetric productivity, which is the key factor for calculation of the industrial sample of the reactor has been determined. By the method of affine modeling, test results of the pilot plant on its industrial design were recalculated. The calculation results demonstrate that by the increase of reactor slag productivity from 0.693 t/h up to 30 t/h, the share of the effectively used heat will increase, the heat share of the cooling water will be decreased and the fuel consumption will be reduced approximately by 2.5, 2.7 and 3 times respectively. Furthermore, by processing of solid slag, the fuel consumption would be reduced by 1.5 times compared to the one in the fuming furnace processing melted slag. It would also be 3–4 times lower than waelz-kiln treating the granulated slag. Due to low level of the molten bath in the reactor where the height is about 0.2 m, the power consumption of the air blower would be approximately 2 times less than that in fuming furnace of height about 0.7 m