Umicore

Jonathan Aerts

Maurits Van Camp

Benedict Janssens

Sven O Santen

The invention relates to a process for the separation and recovery of non-ferrous metals from zinc-bearing residues, in particular from residues produced by the zinc manufacturing industry. The process comprises the steps of:&#x2014;subjecting the residue to a flash or agitated bath fuming step, thereby producing an Fe bearing slag and Zn- and Pb-bearing fumes; and&#x2014;extracting the Zn- and Pb-bearing fumes and valorizing Zn and Pb; characterized in that CaO, SiOand MgO are added as a flux before or during the fuming step so as to obtain a final slag composition with: formula (I) all concentrations being expressed in wt %. The invention also relates to a single-chamber reactor for Zn-fuming equipped with one or more submerged plasma torches as heat and gas sources. 

Process and apparatus for recovery of non-ferrous metals from zinc residues

The invention relates to a process for the separation and recovery of non-ferrous metals from zinc-bearing residues, in particular from residues produced by the zinc manufacturing industry. The process comprises the steps of: &#x2014;subjecting the residue to a flash or agitated bath fuming step, thereby producing an Fe bearing slag and Zn- and Pb-bearing fumes; and &#x2014;extracting the Zn- and Pb-bearing fumes and valorising Zn and Pb; characterised in that CaO, SiOand MgO are added as a flux before or during the fuming step so as to obtain a final slag composition with: formula (I) all concentrations being expressed in wt %. The invention also relates to a single-chamber reactor for Zn-fuming equipped with one or more submerged plasma torches as heat and gas sources. 

The invention relates to a process for the separation and recovery of non-ferrous metals from zinc-bearing residues, in particular from residues produced by the zinc manufacturing industry. The process allows for the valorisation of metal values in a Zn-, Fe- and Pb-bearing residue, and comprises the steps of: subjecting the residue to a direct reduction step, thereby producing a metallic Fe-bearing phase and Zn- and Pb-bearing first fumes; extracting the Zn- and Pb-bearing first fumes and valorising Zn and Pb; subjecting the metallic Fe-bearing phase to an oxidising smelting step, thereby producing an Fe-bearing slag and second metals-bearing fumes; extracting the second metals-bearing fumes and valorising at least part of their metallic content. The main advantage of this process is that an environmentally acceptable output for Fe is obtained.

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Turnhout, Belgium

Jonathan Aerts