Chiranjib Kumar Gupta Chemical Metallurgy Chemical Metallurgy: Principles and Practice. Chiranjib Kumar Gupta Copyright © 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN: 3-527-30376-6 Chiranjib Kumar Gupta Chemical Metallurgy Principles and Practice Author This book was carefully produced. Nevertheless, author and publisher do not warrant the information Dr. Chiranjib Kumar Gupta contained therein to be free of errors. Readers are Bhabha Atomic Research Centre advised to keep in mind that statements, data, Materials Group illustrations, procedural details or other items may Mumbai 400085 inadvertently be inaccurate. India Library of Congress Card No.: applied for British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Biblothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at <http://dnd.ddb.de>. © 2003 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim All rights reserved (including those of translation into other languages). No part of this book may be reproduced in any form – by photoprinting, microfilm, or any other means – nor transmitted or translated into a machine language without written permission from the publishers. Printed in the Federal Republic of Germany Printed on acid-free and low chlorine paper Cover Design Grafik-Design Schulz, Fußgönheim Typesetting Manuela Treindl, Laaber Printing betz-druck GmbH, Darmstadt Binding Großbuchbinderei J. Schäffer GmbH & Co. KG, Grünstadt ISBN 3-527-30376-6 V Foreword Dr. C. K. Gupta is a very distinguished colleague of mine. I have been familiar with his pro- fessional career over a long period. A very large number of research papers, reviews, and several books authored by him bear ample testimony to the diverse and wide-ranging con- tributions he has made to date to the field of chemical metallurgy. I was indeed very happy to accept the invitation from him to write a foreword for the present volume entitled, “Chemi- cal Metallurgy – Principles and Practice”, being published by Wiley-VCH Verlag, Germany. This volume provides in one place a self-contained and adequately detailed coverage of the chemical metallurgy of the major metals, common as well as less common. It has been brought into being as an exceedingly well-structured treatise. The presentation has been organised in seven chapters. The first chapter gives a general appraisal of the whole field of chemical metallurgy. The coverage also includes a brief account of resources. The next two chapters are devoted to thermodynamics and kinetics and to processing of minerals. The remaining three chapters deal, respectively, with pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and electrometallurgy. The last chapter attends to energy and environmental considerations. Physicochemical principles provided for the various unit operations and description of the key details of the processes deserve special mention as being among the attractive features of this volume. One must also additionally note the emphasis laid on the less common metals in the presentation. This is decidedly an additional special feature of the book. Chemi- cal metallurgy of the less common metals described with pertinent principles involved has not been done earlier in one place as has been accomplished in this publication. The abun- dance of illustrations and the comprehensive collection of carefully selected references ap- pended to each chapter add to the value and enhance considerably the overall strength of the book. On the whole, the presentation displays an imaginative and competent handling of the subject matter and really reaches out to the readers. The volume deals with a very wide technical field and will be of interest and relevance to many disciplines, particularly metallurgy, chemical engineering, and chemistry. It will un- doubtedly be a valuable addition to the list of available books dealing with chemical metal- lurgy. At the same time, this volume will be very useful to professionals working in the area of extractive and process metallurgy. The present book has had the benefit of Dr. Gupta’s wide and long-standing experience in the field in full measure and will certainly be greatly valued by those to whom it is addressed. I wish this publication all success and hope it will be as useful as the other books which Dr. Gupta has authored. India, May 2003 B. Bhattacharjee Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Member of Atomic Energy Commission Chemical Metallurgy: Principles and Practice. Chiranjib Kumar Gupta Copyright © 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN: 3-527-30376-6 VII Preface As the title, “Chemical Metallurgy: Principles and Practice” implies, this text blends theory with practice covering, of course, a good deal of descriptive items on hows and whys of extraction and processing of metals and materials. While the processes for the extraction of the common metals have been provided in sufficient detail, I have tried to go in equal depth, if not more, to provide focus on the less common metals. I have, however, avoided lengthy descriptions of current commercial practices as these change rapidly. Rather, selected examples have been presented to illustrate the various principles dealt with in the text. It is expected the readers will supplement this text with appropriate examples of cur- rent practices. All along I have made an effort to lead the treatment to a point where the readers will find the transition to more advanced and specialized metallurgical engineering textbooks, texts, and monographs with emphasis on chemical metallurgy quite easy. This book altogether contains seven chapters. In Chapter 1, I have endeavored to organ- ize the text with a view to acquainting the readers with a miscellany of relevant information and preparing them for going into the contents of the subsequent chapters. Chapter 2 deals with mineral processing, which usually takes the position as the principal front-end opera- tion in the overall process flowsheet for metal extraction. Chapter 3 pertains to thermo- dynamics and kinetics which provide unequivocally a sound basis for the understanding of the processes. The next three chapters delve into pyro-, hydro-, and electro-metallurgy, in that order. Chapter 7 addresses certain representative issues concerning energy consump- tion and environmental pollution aspects especially pertinent to chemical metallurgy operations. It is difficult for an author to praise the virtues of his own book. However, just to say a few words, I may add that, as pointed out, I have systematized the organization of the text in the chapters by presenting the process principles first and then following up with process prac- tice. I have in my opinion adopted a lucid style – readable, interesting, intelligible, and informative – for a wide and varied audience. It has on the whole been a delightful experi- ence for me to produce and place this book for the readership it will fetch. May I end by saying that I earnestly believe the book will provide an interesting reading and knowledge, and will certainly be highly successful in putting the readers into the fascinating world of preparative metallurgy, into the arduous journeys through which different metals and materials traverse to come into their useful beings and finally make themselves available in the service of man. A carefully selected reference list and a good number of clear illustra- tions may be treated as additional features which should not be lost sight of. All these presentations have not been carried out without incorporating the backing of the principles involved and this very element should go to provide additional attractions and spice, so to say, for the book. Chemical Metallurgy: Principles and Practice. Chiranjib Kumar Gupta Copyright © 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN: 3-527-30376-6 VIII Acknowledgements For kind permission to use matter of which they hold the copyright, in the preparation of diagrams and tables, the author is most grateful to the following: Academic Press American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engrs., Inc. CRC Press Elsevier Science Publishers Errol G. Kelly and David G. Spottiswood Freund Publishing House Ltd. Gordon and Breach Publishers, Inc. Hayes Publishing Co. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Macmillan Publishing Co. Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Inc. McGraw Hill Publishing Co. Pergamon Press Ltd. Blackwell Science Ltd. Butterworths The Society of Chemical Industry Longmans McGraw-Hill International Book Company Chemical Metallurgy: Principles and Practice. Chiranjib Kumar Gupta Copyright © 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN: 3-527-30376-6 IX Appreciation No reader of this book can fail to recognise how much I owe to others who have written earlier in this field. To the authors and the editors of the references cited in this volume I express my heartfelt thanks. A book is very much a team project. I am truly indebted to my colleagues, Tapan Kumar Mukherjee, Ashok Kumar Suri, N. Krishnamurthy, and Pradip Mukhopadhyay, whose counsels I sought and whose opinions and advice, so generously given, have largely determined the scope and character of what I have written. All have greatly brought life to the project in the form of unique insights in chemical metallurgy. Prof. Kenneth N. Han of South Dakota School of Mines and Prof. Paul Duby of Henry Krumb School of Mines have had occasions to review this work. They provided knowledge, insight, and plain common sense to guide me during the process of development of this work. I wish to record my deepest gratitude to them. In the same breath, my deepest appre- ciation goes to Pradeep Mukhopadhyay, who has patiently gone through the writing and spared me in no way to keep mistakes at bay. Despite all the thorough inputs from many quarters, if errors have still remained they are all my own responsibility, of course, and I hope readers who find them will communicate them to me or the publisher.