Abstract
A general description of the molten bath smelting technology and approaches to conducting pilot tests of nickel raw material processing in an operating industrial unit—the Vanyukov Furnace - at the Copper Plant of the Polar Division are presented in the paper. Recommended smelting parameters for the test period and a rational composition of the main nickel concentrates are presented. Approaches for the stages of the pilot tests, varying the ratio of high-sulfur to low-sulfur concentrates, are developed, the heat deficit of the smelting process are demonstrated, and the need to introduce energy-intensive components—coal and pyrite sulfide—into the charge are substantiated based on the results of heat balance calculations.
Keywords:
Vanyukov furnace (VF), pilot industrial testing (PIT), Polar Division, Talnakh Concentrator, Norilsk Concentrator, Copper Plant, autogenous process, thermal balance, oxygen-air mixture (OAM), low-sulfur springs