Wet smelting breaks the "zinc road"

A high-pressure water atomizing nozzle, a zinc powder preparation and pulping device, reducing the zinc content of the leaching slag of the roasted ore, and exploring an economical and efficient cobalt recovery process ... Behind these national utility model patents and Jiangtong ’s scientific and technological achievement conversion projects, Can't do without a core person. He is Zhang Enming, the technology model of Jiangtong Copper Group and the director of the zinc-smelting branch of the lead-zinc company, a Jiangtong person who has broken a "zinc road" in the field of conventional wet zinc smelting.

Bravely pick heavy burdens to break new ground

In June 2009, Jiangxi Copper blew the horn to enter the lead-zinc smelting industry. Zhang Enming, who was just a few years old and was in a magnificent year, moved from the Guixi smelter to the lead-zinc company, and took over the zinc smelting project manager and zinc smelting. The burden of the factory director.

The lead-zinc company's first-phase project has a designed production capacity of 100,000 tons per year for lead ingots and zinc ingots. Zinc smelting adopts boiling roasting, conventional leaching, three-stage antimony salt purification, 3.2 square meters of large polar plate automatic zinc stripping process, and lead smelting Kifset's direct lead smelting process forms a joint lead-zinc smelting and realizes comprehensive utilization of resources. For Zhang Enming, who came from "playing copper", everything is blank and everything is a challenge.

"The road came out of people, and everyone will follow me on this new road!" When you go well, you have to start well. During the infrastructure construction, Zhang Enming, a project manager, became a primary school student and "go out" through "Please come in" Together with the new employees, digest and absorb zinc smelting technology, and the motivation to learn does not lose young people at all.

On December 2, 2011, the boiling roaster was ignited and heated up, and the zinc smelting system began trial production. Everything is difficult at the beginning, because a series of equipment is the first domestic application, plus lack of practical experience in zinc smelting, "intestinal obstruction" often occurs in the process. Zhang Enming took everyone to explore one parameter by one parameter, straighten out one process and one process, and "nailed" at the production site like a nail every day. During that time, if someone asked for Zhang Enming, a colleague would point to the plant and say, "Be sure to be there!"

I am the tenth of a person, and I am a hundredth of a person. In late March 2012, zinc smelting and casting produced qualified zinc ingots, and the zinc smelting branch plant achieved the process in just 4 months.

Won the "high fluoride" roadblock

Flow through is just the first step of the Long March, and the harder bite is already in front of Zhang Enming. In April 2013, with the normal operation of the smoke smelting furnace of the lead smelting system, the amount of zinc oxide entering the zinc smelting system increased significantly, and the fluorine concentration in the solution rose rapidly, resulting in the precipitation of zinc sticky plates, resulting in difficulty in peeling zinc and severe production. Constraints.

To truly achieve the joint lead-zinc smelting, we must first take down the high-fluoride system as a roadblock. "People who walk in the footsteps of others will never leave their own footprints, and it is even more impossible to walk in the forefront." Zhang Enming's independent military warrant led the group to a path of exploration through digestion, absorption and innovation.

They started the two-line battle of "saturated fluoride" and "anti-fluorine", changed the technological conditions of acid leaching, low acid leaching and high acid leaching of roasted ore on the first line, and applied the technology of direct spraying of iron fluoridation to remove iron and fluoridation of roasted ore leaching slurry; Measures such as improving the cutting method, designing new anode insulation devices, strengthening scrubbing board management, and standardizing the operation of slotting, etc., adjusted the zinc electrowinning process in a large amount, and continuously improved the anti-fluorine ability of zinc electrowinning.

After repeated competition with "High Fluorine", the winning balance finally leaned towards the team of Zhang Enming who dared to try. In June 2015, the zinc smelting system achieved production. In November 2017, the zinc smelting system exceeded the first designed capacity of 100,000 tons / year.

New technology independently developed

Achieving production standards is not Zhang Enming's ultimate goal. There is a passage in his work log: Under the fierce market competition, who will have a lower cost, higher quality, and more environmentally friendly technology, who can survive the "cold winter".

The three-stage antimony salt purification process used in zinc smelting will produce nickel-cobalt slag with high zinc content, although the purification effect is good. Such low-cost sales of hazardous solid waste or stockpiling of slag yards not only increase the pressure on environmental protection, but also affect the efficiency of the enterprise. We must make the recycling of nickel-cobalt slag a reality, and the "Zhang Enming Laomo Innovation Studio", which was set up soon, is set to start.

The petunias need to pet their noses. Zhang Enming turned his attention to the large amount of zinc powder remaining in the nickel-cobalt slag. Can such nickel-cobalt slag replace zinc powder for a period of purification to remove copper and cadmium, so as to achieve the purpose of recycling nickel-cobalt slag? After the “brainstorming”, it is necessary to carry out practical tests. They did not add a piece of equipment, based on the existing production facilities to tackle the problem, and finally successfully explored a new process of nickel-cobalt slag instead of zinc powder reuse, cadmium recovery using β-naphthol to remove cobalt .

Where there is cost space and where there is potential for profit, it becomes the main battlefield of Zhang Enming's team's independent innovation. Development and application of new anode insulation strips, automatic operation of unit trolleys, transformation of boiling roasting equipment, optimization of alkali washing process, low-cost improvement of zinc melting casting furnace energy efficiency, and stability of zinc powder quality ... Some people said with emotion: "In the zinc smelting branch, several What is unclear is not the pipelines and valves, but the 'Zhuge Society' "Training Committee". "

Today, Jiangxi Copper Group Lead and Zinc Company has formed a zinc smelting process that is different from any other zinc smelting plant. The main technical and economic indicators have reached or exceeded the level of domestic zinc smelting peers. But Zhang Enming's footsteps did not stop, he led everyone to the new goal of "domestic lead and zinc joint smelting model green factory"!