Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids – Apparatus – Rotary drums or receptacles
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-19
2001-04-03
Gravini, Stephen (Department: 3749)
Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids
Apparatus
Rotary drums or receptacles
C034S602000, C034S606000, C432S124000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06209225
ABSTRACT:
REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not Applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an indirect dryer for the process of drying copper concentrate in a copper smelter.
The indirect dryer in use in copper smelters is the multicoil steam dryer, where the heat for the drying process is provided by saturated steam supplied through a smelter's waste heat boiler, which uses the thermal energy of the gases of fusion and conversion. However, it is more efficient to use the thermal energy of these gases for electric power generation, while the heat for the drying process is obtained from the cooling of sources like: the smelting and converting furnaces, the slags, the anodes and other sources of heat that at present time are thrown away. The nitrogen generated in the oxygen plant is the natural fluid for transferring the heat from these hot sources to the wet concentrate; but the specific way of how to heat up the nitrogen is not a matter of this application.
The present dryer differs radically from the steam dryer, since the heating of the concentrate is not realized by means of tubes or multicoils. In particular, the problem of wear is not so critical as it is in the multicoil steam dryer. Moreover, the limitation of capacity up to 120 ton per hour that affects the multicoil steam dryer does not arise in this invention.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention is directed to the drying process of copper concentrate that is required in a copper smelter. The fundamental piece of this rotary dryer is a tube-shaped Heat Distributor that is fixed to the structural drum, and which is made with a material of high thermal conductivity, like copper. In the annular cross section of the Heat Distributor, and all along the dryer, there is a large number of identical tubular holes, where hot nitrogen is forced to flow.
The heat is transferred to the concentrate by means of copper bars, the Heat Transfer Bars, that are fixed, with a good thermal contact, in the internal periphery of the Heat Distributor and that point into the radial direction, that is, in the direction orthogonal to the dryer axis. These bars have a rectangular cross section and they are set up in such a way that they resemble the structure of turbine blades.
Due to the large number of Heat Transfer Bars, a large number of square meters of heating surface per ton of concentrate are obtained. The Heat Transfer Bars also promote the mixing and transport of the concentrate along the dryer because of the rotation of the structural drum.
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Morley Peter D.
Villarroel Danilo
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