COURSE TITLE: METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN

COURSE CODE: CHMT 4003A

DESIGN TOPIC 2019 - DESIGN OF A PLANT FOR THE PRODUCTION OF TANTALUM,
NIOBIUM AND ASSOCIATED BY-PRODUCTS

DESIGN PROBLEM STATEMENT

The Metallurgical Engineering Design Task for 2019 deals with the development of a plant design for
processing a Tantulum-Niobium ore. The candidates will be required to develop a design of a facility
that will treat a specified Tantulum-Niobium ROM ore to produce Tantulum, Niobium metals and/or
other products of saleable grades. The design task will be undertaken in groups with the exception of
the individual design topic, which will be specified later. The guidelines for the execution of the
project are as outlined below;

1. Report 1 – Conceptual Design: Flow-sheet development, Process Flow Diagram (PFD),

Flow-sheet Rationale and Site Location.
 The students should discuss forms of products, their uses and markets
 Determine and discuss the site choice for the facility
 The students will be given the chemical and mineralogical composition of the ore (ROM) to
be processed and an annual tonnage of ROM to be processed.
 Each group will be assigned compulsory process steps and the group needs to add further steps
so that the flowsheet is complete and suitable to produce the required product/s.
 The major advantages and disadvantages of alternative equipment and process steps should be
discussed. The process flow diagram (PFD) needs to be drawn using standard icons and drawn to
professional standards and emphasis should be put on flowsheet rationale.

2. Report 2 - Mass & Energy balances

 Mass and energy balances are required over each relevant unit operation

2.1 Mass Balance

 You need to specify a Process Design Criteria for your mass balance, this process design
criteria should be based on verifiable literature and/or data from existing plants: This is effectively a
list of the assumptions (Grouped by Unit Operations) that inform the mass balance i.e. Estimates of
unit performance – Partition, recovery, extraction fractions, grades, throughputs e.t.c. Estimates of
physical properties of components and streams should also be made. The candidate should also
decide on the units of calculation – kg/hr vs t/a etc and state explicitly the time basis (24hr/s per
day, 5 days a week e.t.c.).
 A summary of the mass balance or mass balance envelope of each unit operation must be
given at beginning of a specific unit operation mass balance calculation. This should provide overall
mass balance (total masses in & out) and individual mass balances of the main
elements/components or compounds involved.

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 2.2 Energy Balance

 Energy balances should be restricted to unit operations in which temperature of streams

change
 You need to specify a Process Design Criteria for your energy balance: For energy changes
you need the following information; Heats of formation (check for logical effects of exothermic –
and endothermic reactions. Remember these are stated at particular conditions so you may need to
travel along the temperature path.
 Heat Capacity dQ=mCpdt – (Cp’s - be very careful if Pressure changes), Heats of mixing
(acids and bases) – usually temperature dependant, Latent heats (fusion and vaporisation – melting
and boiling), Sometimes heat loss to the environment is important
 Classical heat transfer (conduction/convection/radiation) from surfaces matters and can be
considered, usually if you are trying to heat. Heat lost with gas formation always matters,
evaporative losses can be very important – also for the mass change to saturate gases.

3. Report 3 – Equipment Sizing and Economic Evaluation

In the Equipment sizing and Economic evaluation chapter/sections of the report, sufficient
information must be provided to allow approximate costing of equipment. Some calculations might
be appropriate, but short-cut methods are also acceptable, such as simplified sizing and scaling of
capital items based on information from industry, www, catalogues published by equipment
companies, experts. As far as possible, the design results should be benchmarked against existing
industrial operations. The equipment energy consumption/ratings can be restricted to the major
energy consuming units, e.g. Comminution, Calcining, Smelting, Thickening, Filtration, Smelting
and Electro-winning and large motors.

4. Report 4 – Final Design Project

Report 4 is the final 2019 metallurgical design report and will incorporate the material from the report
1, 2 and 3 after consideration of the feedback/corrections recommended. In addition, the final report
will include the HSE considerations of the process and a detailed individual unit design. The structure
of Report 4 will be in this format;
1. Title Page
2. Executive summary, Table of contents, List of graphs, List of drawings, List of
tables, nomenclature
3. Introduction and PFDs
4. Mass balance
5. Energy balance
6. Sizing and Economics
7. Individual Design
8. Safety, health and the Environment (should not exceed 15 pages)

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4.1 Individual Design

 The Individual design is a more fundamentally based section and a greater rigorous approach is
required. This includes identification and use of appropriate models (if available) with an explanation
of their basis. Relevant experimental data should be applied wherever possible to obtain model
parameters. The models should be used to calculate outputs like recoveries, grades and throughputs
that enable the calculation of major equipment dimensions. In addition the detailed individual design
should contain the following;
(i) Materials of construction of equipment
(ii) Dimensional sketches of the equipment units
(iii) Major pipes and control instruments
(iv) A control strategy without calculations i.e. qualitative description of what is
measured and controlled, why and how and associated instrumentation
(v) Peripheral equipment that work alongside the unit.

4.2 Health, Safety and Environment

 For all unit operations, considerations should be given to environmental aspects and health &
safety issues, targeted at pollutants and hazards that are specific to the process, and taking legislation
into account. A proper HAZOP study is not required. The report dealing with Environment, Health
and Safety may not exceed fifteen pages.
5. Write-up

 Student submits written reports (report 1,2,3 &4). Although the members of the group have a
common flowsheet and the same ore composition, and group discussions are encouraged, some of
the reports are individually written while some will be group written. This shall be specified in due
course.
5.1 Submission Format
The design reports will be submitted in the following format;

Report 1, 2 & 3:

1. 1 complete bound report - with Executive summary, Table of contents, List of graphs, List
of drawings, List of tables, Introduction and PFDs.

Report 4:

1. 1 complete bound report - with Executive summary, Table of contents, List of graphs,
List of drawings, List of tables, Introduction and PFDs including the 5 chapters i.e.
Mass Balance, Energy Balance, Sizing and Economics, Individual Design and Safety,
health and the Environment

2. The design project should also be submitted in a CD