A thickener is a continuous gravity separation device that reduces or removes suspended solid particles from liquor. Clarified liquor is removed from the top and thickened solids are discharged from the bottom. Thickeners are an essential part of plant water management. / A conductivity-based sensor has been developed for use in a thickener and has been successfully tested in industrial applications. Data from at Falconbridge's Kidd Creek operations, Inco's Thompson and, in particular, Inco's Sudbury operations are discussed. / The probe designed for this work is a multi-cell arrangement that exploits the difference in conductivity between the liquor and the slurry. Conductivity measurements are taken as a function of depth to provide a profile of the solids content of the thickener. Conductivity measurements can be converted to solids concentration (percent solids) using a model developed by Maxwell. The resulting solids concentration versus depth profile was used to interrogate the behaviour of the solids and to develop thickener control signals. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.33990 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Probst, Alexandre. |
| Contributors | Finch, James (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Engineering (Department of Mining, Metals and Materials Engineering.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001872093, proquestno: MQ79093, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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