Thesis (Masters Degree(Chemical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2008 / ABSTRACT
Carbon-in-pulp (CIP) technology is firmly entrenched in the mining sector due to
numerous advances in the last few decades. CIP technology recovers
complexed gold in solution from slurry streams by contacting the pulp with
carbon and separating the two by screening. The carbon-in-leach (CIL) process,
where the pulp contains free cyanide, is closely related to CIP. Both these
processes, especially CIL, are complex and are governed by a number of
interacting unit processes. The overall process efficiency is dependant on a large
number of variables, making the process difficult to optimize.
This study uses simple adsorption and leaching rate equations in order to predict
dynamic CIL/CIP plant performance under varying operating conditions. This will
assist plant metallurgists to achieve optimum efficiency, highlight plant sensitivity
to certain variables and will ultimately result in proactive process control. Various
assumptions were made in order to keep the modeling considerations as simple
and realistic as possible. The process was assumed to have linear kinetic and
equilibrium operation. The process was simulated using Simulink in Matlab.
Variables are solved on a time step basis by Matlab’s built in optimization
algorithms.
Simulation results illustrated that the use of simple leaching and adsorption rate
expressions are effective for investigating dynamic plant behavior under
changing operating conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/1923 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Deist, Heino |
| Publisher | Cape Peninsula University of Technology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/ |
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