Florian Kongoli

Abstract:

Rotary Kiln is a rotating cylindrical reactor that reduces the oxide feed minerals or dusts with carbon reductants and/or natural gas in order to extract a specific component from the feed by volatilization and produce a waste oxide material or to preliminary reduce the feed material into a pre-reduced one to be subsequently used in a specific reactor. Because of the specificity of these rotating reactors the number of shutdowns to clean the reactors are numerous and as such they constitute a big source of productivity loss. This work presents a unique control of process operations of rotary kilns, concentrating in one of the most difficult ones, the Waelz Process through the unique proprietary FLOGEN CONTOP design, decision making, control, optimization and automation system that made possible a considerable increase of the zinc recovery by volatilization and a drastic decrease of the numbers of shutdowns.