Onsan Refinery

In the course of increasing the production ctq>acity of zinc at the Onsan Refinery from 50,000 tons per year in 1978, the first year of operation, to 350,000 tons per year in 1999, the treatment of iron-containing residue, which is currently a goethite residue, has been an important issue because of the limited space at the plant. Korea Zinc investigated the available technologies for a process that could produce an inert material and meet the limits of the pollution restrictions. The requirements for the new process installed at Korea Zinc were as follows ... 

Figure 1 - Smelting Activity at the Onsan Refinery PLANT DESCRIPTION...

The world s two largest group III producers at the time this was written are both located in South Korea, SK Corp (14,000 bpd) at Ulsan and S-Oil, formerly Ssangyong (9,000 bpd), at Onsan.41 Both operate very large refineries (more than 1,000,000 and 525,000 bpd, respectively) and both employ fuels hydrocrackers to generate waxy high VI intermediates which are subsequently fractionated into waxy lube streams, dewaxed, and hydrofinished. 

C.Y. Choi and Y.H. Lee, Treatment of Zinc Residues by Ausmelt Technology at Onsan Zinc Refinery, Global Symposium on Recycling. Waste Treatment and Clean Technology (REWAS 991 Vol.II. I. Gaballah, J, Hager and R. Solozabal, Eds., Publication of TMS and INASMET, San Sebastian, Spain, 1999,1613-1622. 

Lower temperature and atmospheric pressure direct leaching of zinc sulphide concentrates has also been investigated in considerable detail (6), and there are two commercial facilities in operation, integrated with roast-leach-electrowin operations. The first is located at the Korea Zinc refinery in Onsan, Korea, and the second, at Outokumpu s zinc refinery in Kokkola, Finland (7). Similar to the pressure leach plant installations described above, both of these facilities were installed to expand zinc production. Table II summarizes the commercial zinc atmospheric pressure leach facilities. 

---