Abstract:According to the innate characteristic of four types of furnace, the copper flash continuous smelting (CFCS) furnace can be considered a synthetic reactor of two relatively independent processes: flash matte smelting process (FMSP) and copper continuous converting process (CCCP). Then, the CFCS thermodynamic model was proposed by establishing the multi-phase equilibrium model of FMSP and the local-equilibrium model of CCCP, respectively, and by combining them through the smelting intermediates. Subsequently, the influences of the furnace structures were investigated using the model on the formation of blister copper, the Fe₃O₄ behavior, the copper loss in slag and the copper recovery rate. The results show that the type D furnace, with double flues and a slag partition wall, is an ideal CFCS reactor compared with the other three types furnaces. For CFCS, it is effective to design a partition wall in the furnace to make FMSP and CCCP perform in two relatively independent zones, respectively, and to make smelting gas and converting gas discharge from respective flues.

Key words: furnace structure; copper flash continuous smelting; numerical simulation; thermodynamic analysis