Outotec Pressure Oxidation

- More Out of Sulfide Ore

Jari Tiihonen
World Gold 2013 Timo Haakana
September 26 – 29 John O’Callaghan, M. AusIMM

Brisbane, Australia
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 Contents
Introduction
• Outotec in short
• Outotec pressure technology
• Pressure oxidation for refractory gold

Autoclave agitation
Heat recovery
Summary

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 INTRODUCTION

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 Outotec
Provides leading technologies and services for the
sustainable use of natural resources
• the global leader in minerals and metals processing
technology (84% of sales)
• innovative solutions for the utilization of alternative
energy sources, industrial water treatment and
chemical industry
• Sales 2,087 million EUR. Over 5000 professionals

Sales and service centers in 27 countries,

deliveries to 80 countries

89%
of the order
intake,
Environmental
Goods and
Services,
OECD

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 Strong innovation activity
R&D expenditure Outotec R&D and competence centers (18)
approximately EUR 42 million
669 patent families, including
over 6,000 national patents or
patent applications.
Outotec filed 70 new priority
patent applications in 2012
and 286 new national patents
were granted
Patented inventions by filing year
80
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 Autoclave technology - deliveries

Year No. Location Area Volume T P Type

m3 C barg
1965 1 Finland Co plant 20 120 7 Continuous
1965 1 Finland Co plant 40 120 7 Continuous
1970 1 Finland Co plant 60 120 7 Continuous
1980 1 Finland Anode slime 5 180 15 Batch
1981 1 Finland Ni plant 60 120 10 Continuous
1984 1 Finland Ni plant 170 120 10 Continuous
1984 2 Finland Co plant 30 150 10 Batch
1990 2 Finland Co plant 125 120 10 Continuous
1994 1 Finland Ni plant 150 150 15 Continuous
1994 1 Finland Ni plant 90 150 15 Continuous
1995 4 Finland Ni reduction 40 230 40 Batch
1997 1 Kazakhstan Anode slime 17.5 180 11 Batch
1998 1 India Anode slime 20 130 3 Batch
2012 4 Russia POX 62.5 230 35 Continuous
2013 1 South Korea Ni plant 20 180 16 Continuous
2013 1 South Korea Ni plant 6 130 8 Continuous

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 Autoclave technology - deliveries

Pressure oxidation (POX) plant Petropavlovsk autoclaves

delivery package to Petropavlovsk
PCL is under construction
Including engineering, process
equipment and technology
Process guarantees
http://www.petropavlovsk.net/en/poxhub.html

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 Outotec POX plant delivery
Entire pressure oxidation plant
• Technology, engineering and equipment
• From ore / concentrate feed to gold
production

• Pretreatment like acid treatment and

chloride wash
• Pressure oxidation
• Conditioning
• Solid-liquid separation
• Gas handling
• Heat recovery

• Technology available for ore treatment

• Crushing, grinding, flotation…
• Technology available for gold recovery

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 Autoclave technology - pressure oxidation
For refractory Au to destroy sulfide matrix and
release Au for cyanide leaching by oxidation
Typical T 190-230 oC and S2- conversion 98-99%
Typical Au recovery in cyanide leaching 90-96%
Heat is released

1.0
Main reactions
0.8

Oxidation degree
Pyrite and arsenopyrite oxidation 225 C / 10 bar
0.6
Other sulfides oxidation 225 C / 3.5 bar
Ferrous sulfate oxidation 0.4
195 C / 7 bar
Ferric arsenate, hematite and basic 0.2
iron sulfate precipitation
0.0
Carbonate leaching and release of 0 20 40 60
carbon dioxide Time [min]
Sulfuric acid formation Figure. Example of oxidation kinetics

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 Outotec – Agitation and Heat Recovery

Agitation Heat
recovery

Motor and
gear

Mechanical
seal

Slinger plate

OKTOP ® 1000

OKTOP ® 2200

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 AUTOCLAVE
AGITATION

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 Testwork - comparing impeller performance
Impellers compared OKTOP1000
• Outotec OKTOP2200
• Rushton
• As single and dual with pitch OKTOP2200 Rushton
blade impeller (OKTOP1000)
Features tested
• Gas dispersion
• Gas-liquid mass transfer
• Solid suspension
CFD used to compare velocity
profiles, mixing times and flow
numbers at industrial scale

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 Gas dispersion
25
In horizontal autoclave compartment
Full dispersion
20
model filled with 26 L of water

Gas hold-up [%]

point
75 W
15
Impeller diameter 130-136 mm Full
10 dispersion
Air feed 11 m 3/h, Jg = 2.5 cm/s point
73 W
5
Dual OKTOP
OKTOP requires less agitation to 0
Dual rushton

disperse gas than Rushton 40 60 80 100

• Full dispersion with 10-20% less speed Tip speed [%]

• Lower wear rate improves economy 25

Full dispersion
Less maintenance 20

Gas hold-up [%]

point
71 W
Increased autoclave uptime 15
Full
10 dispersion
point
83 W
5
OKTOP
Rushton
0
40 60 80 100
Tip speed [%]
Partial dispersion Full dispersion

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 Gas-liquid mass transfer
0.5
In vertical model filled with 4 L of water Dual OKTOP
0.4 Rushton
Impeller diameter 74 mm

kLa [1/s]
0.3
2Na2SO3 + O2 2Na2SO4 reaction
0.2
rate measurement at 2.2 bar and 20 oC
0.1
Pressure control with O2 feed
0.0
Work completed by SRC 40 55 70 85 100
Hydrometallurgy in St Petersburg for Tip speed [%]
Petropavlovsk 0.5
Dual OKTOP
0.4 Rushton
OKTOP speeds up the oxidation rate

kLa [1/s]
compared to Rushton 0.3

• Higher oxidation rate with the same tip 0.2

speed and power input. 0.1

• Improved dispersion capabilities and 0.0

enhanced head space gas 0 25 50 75 100

reincorporation Power [%]

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 Solids suspension
In horizontal autoclave compartment
model filled with 28 L of water No air feed
300 Smaller is Better 250 Smaller is Better
Impeller diameter 130-136 mm 250 200
200
OKTOP Rushton 150
Quartz sand 100-125 m 150 Dual Dual
100 OKTOP Rushton
100
Njs (=just suspended) speed measured 50
50
0 0
Njs [rpm] Njs [rpm]
OKTOP requires less agitation to
suspend solids than Rushton Air feed 7 m3/h, Jg = 1.6 cm/s
500 Smaller is Better 500 Smaller is Better
• Njs with 15-50% less speed 400 400
• Lower wear rate improves economy 300 300
OKTOP Rushton Dual Dual
Less maintenance 200 200 OKTOP Rushton
100 100
Increased autoclave uptime
0 0
• Njs with 40-130% less power Njs [rpm] Njs [rpm]

• Less power improves economy

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 Solids suspension
For high gas feed flow applications gas
dispersion determines the agitation No air feed
30 Smaller is Better 15 Smaller is Better
Suspension becomes critical, when gas 25
feed rate is low or gas is consumed 20 10
15
OKTOP Rushton Dual Dual
10 5 OKTOP Rushton
Njs and power consumption increases 5
with air feed increase 0 0
P [W] P [W]
Part of the mixing energy goes to gas
dispersion
Increasing air feed Air feed 7 m3/h, Jg = 1.6 cm/s
400 60 Smaller is Better 60 Smaller is Better
Dual OKTOP P [W]
30 50 50
300
40 40
20
200 30 30
20 20 Dual Dual
100 10 OKTOP Rushton OKTOP Rushton
Jg Jg Jg Jg Jg
10 10
0 cm/s 0.2 cm/s 0.7 cm/s 1.1 cm/s 1.6 cm/s
0 0 0 0
Njs [rpm] P [W] P [W]

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 Computational fluid dynamics
OKTOP2200 95.5 rpm Rushton 108 rpm
CFD in industrial scale
autoclave compartment
2.81m x 2.44m
Comparison with the same
power consumption

OKTOP shows
• Higher flow rates
• Shorter mixing time 3.5 2.8 2.1 1.4 0.7 0.0 m/s

120 1.2 Bigger is Better 24

Equal Power Smaller is Better
Results are in line with the 110 0.9
23
experimental observations OKTOP Rushton
100 0.6
OKTOP Rushton 0.3 22
90
OKTOP Rushton
80 0 21
Agitation [rpm] Flow number Mixing time [s]

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 HEAT RECOVERY

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 Outotec Energy and Water Recovery

EWRS utilizes energy and water released in

autoclave flash steam

EWRS is a combination of components of

known technology and tailored to each user

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 Outotec Energy and Water Recovery

The key features are

Direct contact tray-

tray-type condenser

Energy transfer via indirect heat exchangers

Partial water recovery from condensed steam

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 Outotec Energy and Water Recovery
Direct contact tray
tray--type condenser
• Fully integrated: Isobaric with flash vessel
• Highly efficient counter-current heat exchanger
• Scale minimization with condensate re-circulation
• High scale tolerance

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 Outotec Energy and Water Recovery
Energy transfer via indirect heat
exchangers
• Easy cleaning design
• Potential applications: steam for boilers, process
heating, heating of buildings, water desalination

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 Example of EWRS

Petropavlovsk

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 Example of EWRS

Petropavlovsk

Key features
• Approximately 24 MW of energy to District
Heating System during winter
• System can be by passed during summer
• Flashing in two stages
• High pressure flash steam is utilized in the
Direct Contact HP Condenser
• Each Autoclave “train” has an integrated Flash-
Condenser system
• Pressure control of both HP Flash Vessel and
Condenser by excess steam venting

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 Example of EWRS
Key features cont.
• Excess steam with AC vent gas is cleaned Petropavlovsk
in Outotec Venturi Gas Scrubber
• Low temperature
condensate is
circulated to the top of
Condenser

• Excess condensate
can be used as
process water

• High temperature condensate flows through Primary

Heat exchanger (PHEX) to a common condensate tank
• Tank is at atmospheric pressure and at 85-90 oC in
normal operation

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 Example of EWRS

Key features cont. Petropavlovsk

• Clean side of PHEX works
at higher pressure than HP
condenser side to prevent
acid contamination

• Heated PHEX water is

directed to Secondary Heat
Exchanger (SHEX).

• Other side of SHEX cool

water is heated and
circulated through District
Heating System

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 SUMMARY

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 Summary
With in-house research capabilities and
engineering expertise
• Outotec can develop a project from conceptual study
phase to detailed engineering
• Outotec can supply the complete plant

Outotec’s autoclave technology includes advanced

agitation systems that maximizes oxygen mass
transfer and utilization while minimising wear

Outotec can provide innovative tailor-made solution

to specific client needs.
• E. g. an innovative energy and water recovery process
technology was developed and supplied to Petropavlovsk.

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