Mintek

1 ton / day Pilot Plant
(300 kVA AC-arc facility)


Schematic presentation of 300 kVA AC arc furnace The 1 ton / day AC-arc facility consists of:


Description of the pilot plant

Furnace

The furnace shell is lined with refractory bricks suitable for the testwork being done. The hearth is usually lined with high-magnesite rammable material. The roof of the furnace is lined with alumina castable refractory. The furnace shell is further equipped with water-spray cooling.

Electrode

The three 100 mm graphite electrodes enter the furnace through three symmetrically positioned ports. The feed enters the furnace through a feed port positioned between the two electrode ports in the front.

Feed system

The feed system consists of six 0.9 m³ batching hoppers fitted with vibratory feeders. The vibratory feeders discharge the feed material onto a belt conveyor, from where it is fed into the furnace supply feed hopper.

Power supply

The power supply is a three-phase unit fed by a 11 kV, 50 Hz supply. One unit of the transformer is an auto-regulator with on-load tap changer and a reactor with a manually operated off-circuit tap switch. The second unit is a tapless main transformer with a ratio of 73:3 and double-wound secondary winding.

Gas handling

The off-gases are extracted by a reversed pulse bagplant rated at 6 500 Nm³/h. The bagplant utilizes 100 polyester needlefelt bags with a total area of 100 m². The fume released from the bags settle into a cone, from where it is continuously discharged through a rotary valve into drums.


Contact Information
Pyrometallurgy Division, Mintek,
200 Hans Strijdom Drive, Randburg, 2125, South Africa
Private Bag X3015, Randburg, 2125, South Africa.

Phone: +27 (11) 709-4642
Fax: +27 (11) 793-6241


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Copyright © 1996-97 George la Grange, Mintek, rtj@pyro.mintek.ac.za
7 October 1997