Thermodynamic process modeling and simulation of a diaspore bauxite digestion process

• Bauxite ores which originated from separate mines have different characteristics, i.e. each bauxite ore has its own individual specifications. Jajarm bauxite is of the diaspore-chamosite type and its alumina to silica mass ratio is lower than other diaspore ores. Diaspore bauxite digestion in comparison with other bauxite types has more complicated operational conditions and requires higher temperature, pressure and caustic concentration. The present study was thus performed on the above mentioned digestion process and include two parts. First, the behavior of some key parameters of the process was experimentally investigated. Second, a simulation model was developed to predict the performance of the process, particularly thermal energy consumption.  The model was validated with several sets of the industrial data and close agreement was found. The effects of various trends in pressure drops of the flash tanks on the slurry preheating were analyzed. The results showed that the proposed pressure profile can lead to an increase in the furnace inlet slurry temperature. Alternatively, it can lead to an appreciable decrease in the furnace fuel consumption, which is required for having the existing operating temperature. The generated vapor in different stages of the process was determined. A considerable amount of the generated water vapor and thermal energy were lost. The model was further developed to study the effect of using a part of these vapors on heat recovery. The simulation results showed that in the new design, the pre-heater sections can gain 5.71GJ/h additional heat and the fresh slurry temperature increases by 11°C. Therefore, the furnace required energy is reduced by 11.9%.  The new design was implemented in the refinery and according to the energy department report, it has reduced the furnace fuel consumption by 8%, which is around 200kg of natural gas /h less than the earlier condition for every digestion line.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

lic (subject category)