The Energy Consumption for Copper Smelting of Dongying Fangyuan Non-ferrous Metals Group Reached the Lowest in the World

The energy consumption of copper smelting in china reaches the lowest the world. According to information collected from China Nonferrous Metal Industry Association, in 2010,Dongying Fangyuan Non-ferrous Metals Group consumed on average only 162.34 kilograms of standard coal per ton for the smelting of crude copper, about 130 kilograms of standard coal per ton lower than the other advanced smelting plants in the world.

It is learned that in the process of turning copper concentrates into crude copper, the energy consumption is mainly two-fold: energy consumption for the high-temperature smelting in the furnace and energy consumption during the process of oxygen generation due to the huge demand of oxygen in smelting.

At the end of 2008, the copper smelting plant with an annual production capacity of 0.1 million tons with the oxygen-enriched top-blown bath smelting technology by Dongying Fangyuan was put into production. Compared with the smelting technology of Ausmelt, Isa, and Noranda, it enjoys such advantage as enclosed furnace shaft design, no escape of heat and the complete self-heating smelting of copper concentrates with no addition of any fuel. The other methods, however, require the addition of three to five percent of addition of coal powder in proportion to the copper concentrate. In addition the oxygen lance is placed at the bottom of the furnace shaft and the oxygen is blown from the bottom to the upper part. So, there are special dynamic and thermodynamic conditions for within the furnace shaft when the raw materials and the oxygen can enjoy full contact and the raw materials can be burnt sufficiently.Therefore, the oxygen consumed is 30% less than the other technologies. According to the data for the whole year of 2010, the lowest energy consumption for crude copper production is only 133 kilograms of standard coal per ton and average monthly consumption for the whole year is 162.34 kilograms of standard coal per ton.

According to vice-director of the China Nonferrous Metal Industry Association, due to the constraint by equipment and process design,the energy consumption for crude copper production is around 300 kilograms of standard coal per ton for big companies adopting smelting technology of Ausmelt, Isa, and Noranda.Considering the huge advantage of this technology in energy conservation and consumption reduction and the leading position of this technology in some technical indicators, the Ministry of Technology and the China Nonferrous Metal Industry Association are popularizing this technology throughout China. So far,over 11 companies at home and abroad have adopted this technology. For better popularization of this technology, Dongying Fangyuan Non-ferrous Metals Group also set up Shandong Fangyuan Non-ferrous Metal Technology Service Company Limited, dedicating to oxygen-enriched top-blown bath smelting technology and related technology and services of supporting techniques and technologies.