Abstract
In the dumps of metallurgical enterprises of Kazakhstan about 700 million
tons of waste products are generated annually, and are polluting the
atmosphere and the soil. The concentration of valuable components in waste
products are no lower than in natural resources. The reserves of coal in
the Ekibastuz basin are estimated to be more than a billion tons, and
almost half of this is made up of ash. Every year, up to 30 million tons
of ash-cinder waste is generated, which presents a serious threat to
nature. Gallium and germanium concentrations in dumps are approximately
200 grams per ton, which is comparable to the content in coal before
processing. The current research aims at creating a unit to obtain
hydrogen-enriched water gas from Ekibastuz coal, with the production of
zinc, gallium and germanium sublimates, copper-containing cast iron, slag
wool and cast stone, through the joint processing of zinc-rich slag and
ash-cinder wastes from thermal power plants. To achieve this, we used
previous methods of extreme energy saving and a new method, the smelt
layer with inversion phase. Experimental results from the “reactor
inversion phase – rotary kiln” (RIPh) unit, which processed zinc-germanium
contained slag, showed the potential to extract germanium from zinc
sublimates, to reduce iron to the form of cupreous cast iron, and to
obtain combustible gases and smelt suitable for slag-wool production.
Calculations performed on the joint processing of Ekibastuz coal and
zinc-rich slag using the proposed unit “reactor of inversion phase –
rotary kiln – gas generator” showed it can obtain hydrogen-enriched water
gas, along with the extraction of valuable components of primary raw
material.
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