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m&mt
Abstract
The paper o u t l i n e s the exi s t i n g f a c i l i t i e s and worki ng p r a c t i c e s
at the K h e t r i e l e c t r o - r e f i n e r y of Hindustan Copper L i m i t e d .
have boon drawn up to mechanize sonic key ope cations to improve tho
q u a l i t y . o f cathodes and the working environment as v;e 11 as economize
the refinery operations. The economic analysis for determining
Plans
HI
v a r i o u s optimum o p e r a t i o n a l parameters under c o n d i t i o n s e x i s t i n g i n
BS
I n d i a have also been o u t l i n e d . The impact of c a p a c i t y u t i l i s a t i o n and
mechanization under d i f f e r e n t sets of c o n d i t i o n s on o p e r a t i o n a l costs
have been h i g h l i g h t e d .
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KHETRI TANK HOUSE MODERNIZATION
h
BY
P. BALACHANDRAN
M. J. ALAM
G. L. BHOTOA
Introduction
H i n d u s t a n Copper L t d . , a Government o f I n d i a E n t e r p r i s e , i s t h e s o l o
producer of copper in India. The company has two underground
mining / m e t a l l u r g i c a l u n i t s s i t u a t e d in ttie eastern and western pa,rts of
the country and an open-cast mine s i t u a t e d in the c e n t r a l p a r t .
I]
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i! 351
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1 1, IL.
5i s
— —
— —
- - •
H — . . .. j
; 7 :; 7
—
— G 0
2 2
— T
1 .Washing
Tanks
2.Colls
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group
i •
3,Collecting 'L \ . '', •'['
4 4 Tank I
4.Collecting
Trmk II
5,Collecting
Tank I I I
3 ..3. G,settling
Tank
7,Sliruo Tnnk
8 .Stcirnno
—1 i 1 II Tank (Elo-
ctrolyte)
9.Cnthodo &
III
nnodo ato-
10 rage aron
10, Stripping
shoot pro-
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area
11 11.Offices
12.Root ' , * . • ' • ' " • '
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the equipment. The operating data of the refinery are shown in
appendix 1.
Lin.1 cast In the smelter on an anode casting wheel, u
thickness is manually control led resulting in wide variations in anode
weight. Use of such anodes adversely affects the steady operations in the
oloctrolyt fc plant. It also liar, an impact on materials hand] Jny
operations. Hence it lias been decided to introduce automatic weight
control for anodes during casting and to supply anodes of uniform weight
to the electrolytic plant.
Si nee no lead or other heavy metals are present in the KCC anodes,
slimes produced in the electrolyte has a tendency to float. Settling and
filtration systems originally envisaged by the consultants proved
inadequate to deal with the situation at a high level of capacity
utilization. Consequently the slime filtration system, the electrolyte
filtration system and electrolyte make-up system were modified to supply
clear electrolyte to the electrolyte Circuits by using a S c h o o l e r
filter.
The material handling in the electrolytic plant is manual in nature.
Anodes received from Smelter are dressed and spaced manually on racks, A
12 tonne EOT crane lifts the anodes in hooking devices and charges them
into the eel 1. Copper shims are used under the anode lug to ensure
proper vertical alignment. The starting sheets are manually stripped from
copper mother blanks and are conveyed to the main riveting press by means
of e hand driven troiicy. The riveted sheets are then straightened
through a pair of rolls which also ridgedizes the sheets. The round
current carrying bar is placed in the loop manually and tfie sheets are
manually transferred on storage rac' ;. Starting sheets are transferred by
EOT Crane and then charged again n ...ally between the anodes in the cell.
Cells are filled with electrolyte and the electrical circuit is switched
on by removing the isolating shunt.
Ilii
Proposed Mechaniza tion/Kodernization
These operations are \-?ry labor intensive and need
highly skilled operators. Operators and supervisors were leaving,
causing occasional high labor turn over and posing a problem in
maintaining a hi gh standard of operations. Moreover, the cost of labor
has more than doubled for the past five years and this trend is likely to
continue into the future. The cost of fuel and electricity has increased
three times over the past few yoars, Hence, it has become very necessary
to introduce mechanization In i.ho electrolytic plant in order to i;educe
costs and improve the operating efficiency and productivity. It was felt
at the outset that some of the operations of the existing plant ore
necessary to be strengthened 'modified to improve the materia1 handl Ing
and the plant operation. The proposed system deals with the a relatively,
low current efficiency, the high rate of anode scrap generation, the high
level of floating slimes in the electrolyte and the highly labor
intensive handling equips it. In order to improve the operating
efficiency and p r o d u c t i v e of the unit the fol lowing faci 1 i ties are
proposed to be added and lodifi cation in some areas of operation are
planned.
1. Anode milling and spacing machine
2. Automatic starting sheet preparation machine
3. Cathode washing machine
4. Mist separators Lo improve the ventilation system
Milli-volt recorders for each cell to improve short circuit
detection
M o d i f i c a t i o n s i n e l e c t r o l y t e and s l i m e c i r c u i t s t o r e d u c e t h e
l e v e l o f f l o a t i n g slimes i n tiie e l e c t r o l y t e
S e t t i n g u p o f a n e l e c t r o l y t e p u r i f i Cd'. i o n p l a n t f o r p u r i f i c a t i o n • -
o f e l e c t r o l y t e and r e - c i r c u l a t i o n o f black a c i d t o t h e
e l e c t r o l y t e c i r c u i t with a d d i t i o n a l f a c i l i t y for recovery o f
c r u d e n i c k e l sut f a t e .
8, Mechanized system f o r a d d i t i o n of reagents.
of OPERATIONS
v)
\
Cathode production
Total power consump
tion
2400 MT
JOOKvJi/HT
31,300 MT
210 Lo 250Kwh/MT I !
i
Floating slime 20 to 30 • pin 4 to 8 ppm
vi) Percentage downtime 152 5 to 10% i
of eel 1s
vii) Cathode Quality
99.99;i minimum 99.99* minimum
, • .
Copper
Nickel 5.0 ppm 5 0 ppm
Selenium 2 ppm 1 ppm max.
Telluri um 2 ppm 1 ppm max,
Sulphur 12-18 ppm 10 ppm max,
Iron 12-15 ppm
:
5 0 ppm max.
:
p r o d u c t i o n amounts t o l o n g t e r m f i x e d c o s t s , They i n c l u d e d e p r e c i a t i o n , •
a l l o c a t e d f i n a n c i n g c h a r g e s and a l l o c a t e d c o s t o f s e r v i c e s . Out o f t h e
b a l a n c e 4 0 - 6 0 S o f t h e c o s t s , power a l o n e a c c o u n t s f o r the 3'j.i.
because power is a v e r y e x p a n s i v e commodity and at KCC the p r i c e i n c r e a s e
p e r u n i t has buuti tour to] d over t h e l a s t b y u j r s .
This is
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amounts to Rs, 1.75 per KW/hr, The other major cost Hems arc manpower,
spares and stores nnri operating supplies. However, these costs do not
flic t u d e the c o s t s uf c a r r y lr«J t h e sm'La I l o c k e d up i n p r o c e s s ns w e i 1 3 s
the cost of anode scrap remeltiny, but include allocated costs arid
overheads which are beyond the control of the Project Planner gr
Operating Manager.
In analyzing the impact of operating parameters on cost, the concept
of relevant cost has been adopted. Sunk costs which have already been
incurred at the time of making the decision have not been considered.
Future cash costs l i k e i n t e r e s t on metal locked up, cost of materials and
energy which are p a r t i a l l y or f u l l y amendable for control by the Project or
Operating Manager have been taken into account. The future impact of sunk
costs l i k e interest on capital already employed have not been accounted f o r
as they have no influence on tlie decision at hand, The results of these
calculations on a few c r i t i c a l parameters are discussed in this section.
Current density
358
in nature and the cost of exi sting operations is taken as 100. The
y-axis is basically the ratio between the projected cost and the standard ;
r* '" '*"
cost expressed as a percentage.
Impact of Material Handling
This is an important section of Tank House from the cost point of
view since most of the manpower is used for materials handling. As
indicated earlier, it is possible to insulate the efficiency of cell
operations from the manual skill of workers 1W introducing mechanization. ! •
115T
I
•a
o With mechanisation
o
o
-
© 105 Without :
raeohanigation ill
4*
M
s 100
'2785" Mr
5S15 MT (I
i
ooo "3500"
Monthly output in MT.
V,
Pior-2
359
3. Cell n v a i l a b i l i t i e s increase by 5-10?
1. As tinotius and CitUtodos are uniform and s t r a i g h t the
between the anode and cathode can be reduced by [ >% with
consequent saving in power
5, As a r e s u l t of the above f a c t o r s the o u t p u t Increases more
in r e l a t i o n to the c u r r e n l . rlcur, il.y n; compared to n not)
median i zcti opera I ion
6, The chemical q u a l i t y of catliode improves ( t h e impact of t h i s
cost cannot be e v a l u a t e d )
7, The c u r r e n t flow in almost a l l the anodes and cathodes in
tank house would be u n i f o r m with very l i t t l e v a r i a t i o n in
catliode weights as compared to manual o p e r a t i o n
Cathode Weight
It.'
11- • 360
Crops of cathodes per anode cycle
180
170
2
© IGo
3
3a 150
jjj 130
o
5 120
n
6 100 -
90
80
60 7r> 80
Cathode weight
. I t c a n b e s e e n from F i g u r e 3 t h a t t h e c o s t o f m a t e r i a l h a n d l i n g a n d
s t a r t i n g s h e e t p r e p a r a t i o n (with manual h a n d l i n g ) is h i g h e s t f o r a one
crop operation. The c o s t d e c r e a s e s w i t h c a t h o d e w e i g h t d u e t o r e a s o n s
mentioned e a r l i e r . The t h r e e c r o p o p e r a t i o n h a s minimum c o s t s d u e t o t h e
l o w e r anode h a n d l i n g c o s t per c r o p .
The Figure 4 gives the c o s t of in process copper locked-up in' the
cells. Increased cathode weights i n c r e a s e t h i s f i g u r e . However, the one
co UKKIC crofi/itumfo eye lo ojiotMtion has .i t;l<*sr adv^nt^u)' 1 on t,ho other two
modes of operation as the anodes have l e s s o r weight and do not remain for
longer period of time in c e l l s .
The F1 (jure r> gives the cost of scrap rcmel t i n g . At KCC, the scrap
generated at anode furnace furnace iittsseellff is
is hiyh and the remo
remollin<ilin<i of anode scra
is a c o n s t r a i n t . Consequently, the marginal c o s t of melting.anode scrap
lias been taken i n to t o account. The one crop o p e r a t i o n i s a t a. di s t i n e t
disadvantage as compared to a two crop or three crop operation for t h i s
segment of c o s t .
300
•a 2 5 0
o
200 ••
150
100
50--
60 70 80 90 100 HO
Weight of cathodo in K%.
352
Cost Ratlo/MT of cathode
Cost Ratie/MT of cathode
• .
. I
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Annexure