Front-end operations

Separation processes, as could be seen from Figure 2.1, position themselves at the back end of the sequence in operations in the mineral processing flowsheet. The front-end operations has been found virtually to terminate with the liberation or the size-reduction processes involving crushing and grinding. It is important to limit the amount of size reduction to that at which adequate liberation is accomplished. The term adequacy is related to the cost involved in comminution and to performance of the concentration methods that follows. The concentration is obtained by separation processes which rely on differences in the properties of the particles, the physical and physico-chemical characteristics of minerals. In this context, it will only be relevant to refer to Table 2.5 which presents a summary of the processes along with the properties of the minerals that are exploited. 

At present, leaching is one of the most essential front-end operations in hydrometallurgy, but in future hydrometallurgical processes for secondary metal recovery, treatment of low grade and complex ores, and research and development into high-temperature and high-pressure processes will become increasingly important. 

Theoretically speaking there occurs no consumption of leaching reagents, ammonia and carbon dioxide. These are recycled and only process losses are to be made up. Energy requirements for drying and reduction are high - these front-end operations consume more than 60% of the total energy input to whole processes. 

Dual-Pressure Process. Dual-pressure processes have a medium pressure (ca 0.3—0.6 MPa) front end for ammonia oxidation and a high pressure (1.1—1.5 MPa) tail end for absorption. Some older plants still use atmospheric pressure for ammonia conversion. Compared to high monopressure plants, the lower oxidation pressure improves ammonia yield and catalyst performance. Platinum losses are significantiy lower and production mns are extended by a longer catalyst life. Reduced pressure also results in weaker nitric acid condensate from the cooler condenser, which helps to improve absorber performance. Due to the spHt in operating conditions, the dual-pressure process requires a specialized stainless steel NO compressor. 

For many operations, workers are assigned to assist in conducting decontamination of workers wearing Level A or B PPE during the decontamination process. Decontamination workers stationed at the front end of the decontamination line may require more protection from chemical and radiological contaminants than decontamination workers assigned to the latter stages of decontamination. 

The separation of solids from liquids forms an important part of almost all front-end and back-end operations in hydrometallurgy. This is due to several reasons, including removal of the gangue or unleached fraction from the leached liquor the need for clarified liquors for ion exchange, solvent extraction, precipitation or other appropriate processing and the post-precipitation or post-crystallization recovery of valuable solids. Solid-liquid separation is influenced by many factors such as the concentration of the suspended solids the particle size distribution the composition the strength and clarity of the leach liquor and the methods of precipitation used. Some important points of the common methods of solid-liquid separation have been dealt with in Chapter 2. 

The present description is based on previous publications from this laboratory56-59 and the interested reader will find additional details and references in that work. Two different ion-source reaction chambers are used. One of these sources which operates at room temperature is shown in Figure 4. The second source, a variable temperature source will also be described. The electrospray generator and the ion-source reaction chamber are shown in Figure 4, while the mounting of the ion source and the front end of the mass spectrometer are shown in Figure 5. 

USC [Ultra Selective Conversion] A front-end process for improving the operation of catalytic crackers for making ethylene. Developed and offered by Stone Webster Engineering Corporation. 

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