Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

The raw materials for nonferrous smelting are mostly metal sulfides, and a large amount of sulfur dioxide flue gas is generated during the pyrometallurgical process. Generally, the smelting flue gas is used for acid production. In the purification process of acid production, dilute acid captures a large amount of dust and impurities in the flue gas, which are settled by an efficient sedimentation tank. The supernatant returns to the system, and the underflow is sent to a filter press for filtration. The filter cake containing valuable metals is returned to the smelting system for recovery. The amount of smelting flue gas and impurity content fluctuate greatly. To meet the impurity removal efficiency under all operating conditions, it is necessary to increase the effective settling area of the settling tank or increase the particle settling speed, which increases the costs. This article conducted a feasibility analysis of using flocculant PAM to improve the sedimentation rate of impurities in purified dilute acid, and explored the impact of different PAM dosage on the sedimentation of impurities in purified dilute acid, so as to provide reference data for the selection of sedimentation tank,improve sedimentation efficiency and reduce equipment specifications. The experimental results show that the addition of PAM has a positive effect on particle deposition in refining dilute acid from smelting flue gas, and has no significant impact on the composition of refining dilute acid from smelting flue gas, and does not affect the flue gas purification effect.