Metso Outotec will attend and present at Copper 2022, the largest technical copper conference

The carbon dioxide emissions of copper production are of high interest. A short-term opportunity for existing sites to lower unit CO₂ emissions is to optimize the process performance. To enable continuous process optimization Metso Outotec has developed an advanced process control system.

It is an expert-level control system that is based on dynamic mass and heat balance model and can be automatically calibrated with process measurements and laboratory assay information. The beneficial effects are seen as optimized energy balance and lower metal losses. Hear how using Metso Outotec Process Advisor’s benefits are analyzed and the effect of process optimization on carbon footprint evaluated. The effect of process optimization on CO₂ emissions of unit processes is discussed.  

Presenters: Mari Lindgren, Director, Research and Development - Smelting, Metso Outotec, Finland and Peter Björklund, Technology Manager – Flash Smelting, Metso Outotec Finland.

Co-authors of the paper: Satu Jyrkönen, Metso Outotec, Finland , Lauri Pesonen, Metso Outotec, Finland , Hannu Johto, Metso Outotec, Finland , Joseph Hamuyuni, Metso Outotec, Finland. 

Mari Lindgren

Mari Lindgren is the Director of RTD, smelting in Metso Outotec Research Center in Pori, Finland. Mari has Ph. D in Materials Engineering. She has 20+ years in research in various roles. Mari has published 45+ peer-reviewed articles and 25+ conference papers. Mari’s RTD team is involved in both experimental research and modelling activities.  

Peter Björklund

Peter Björklund is currently Technology Manager – Flash Smelting for Metso Outotec, based in Espoo, Finland. In this role he is responsible for the Feeding and Combustion side of the Flash Smelting Technology with special focus on the upper level control system (Process Advisor). 

• Degrees: M.Eng. (Applied Thermodynamics 2001) from the University of Helsinki 
• Industry: 
  • 2 years in research mostly modelling software development (HSC Chemistry) 
  • 19 years in Metso Outotec working in projects, commissioning and development 

Thanks to over 70 years of operating history of the Metso Outotec Flash Smelting process, feedback from the numerous operating sites is available and development work is often carried out in co-operation with our customers. Some of the newest innovations are related to optimizing process gas distribution to the Flash Smelting furnace, feed distribution to the furnace and feed rate stability. The general goals for the development work have been to improve equipment performance and to prolong its lifetime, thus realizing savings in smelter plant operation costs. This presentation highlights the latest developments in furnace feed system and new digital products and shows their effect on the improved process performance. 

Presenters: Peter Björklund, Technology Manager – Flash Smelting,  Metso Outotec, Finland and José A. Calderón, Process Engineer – Flash furnace and power plant, Atlantic Copper, Spain

Co-authors: Jaana Romppanen, Metso Outotec, Finland, Tapio Ahokainen, Metso Outotec, Finland, Satu Jyrkönen, Metso Outotec, Finland, Lauri Pesonen, Metso Outotec, Finland.

Operational cost efficiency is a critical success driver to smelters, but operators lock down most of the parameters already when they choose the core smelting technology. This presentation focuses on comparing different copper smelting options available in the market and estimating via HSC-SIM simulation which technology offers the best chances for profit maximization under different scenarios.
This is a continuation to the authors’ previous article on the topic, presented at Copper 2019. The methodology has been revisited and developed further to include also wet gas cleaning, acid production, copper fire refining, anode casting and tankhouse electrorefining, along with carbon pricing for Scope 1 and 2 emissions. With these additions, the majority of the operational costs are now captured, allowing an even better comparison to real world references.

Presenter: Lauri Pesonen, Solution Sales Director, Metso Outotec

Co-authors: Hannu Johto, Metso Outotec, Finland, Satu Jyrkönen, Metso Outotec, Finland, Mari Lindgren, Metso Outotec, Finland.

Lauri Pesonen 

Lauri Pesonen joined Metso Outotec predecessor Outokumpu Technology in 2007, as process designer and commissioning engineer to work on flash smelting technology projects. The work soon took him to many copper and nickel smelters around the world after which he took a new role of product manager and looked after the concentrate burner and anode furnace technologies until the promotion into business development manager and related rotations to company’s Toronto and Santiago offices. Nowadays Lauri is based in the main office in Espoo Finland and is responsible for Metals sales operations and development as a sales director. Lauri has a Master’s Degree on Metallurgy from Helsinki University of Technology and MBA from Hult International Business School in USA.

With appropriate pre-processing, a particularly valuable fraction of e-scrap can be recovered, but this fraction also contains significant challenges to process in conventional primary copper smelting plants due to the presence of plastics, halides, heavy metals and aluminium/alumina. In this presentation is described the technical and commercial challenges in processing e-scrap and how these may be addressed with Metso Outotec suite of eScrap technologies. A high-level economic analysis and discussion of the potential viability of smaller scale, local e-scrap processing plants is also presented. 

Presenter: Stephen Hughes, Manager Sales - TSL Smelting, Metso Outotec, Australia 

Co-authors: Lauri Narhi, Metso Outotec, Finland, Hannes Holmgren, Metso Outotec, Sweden 

Stephen Hughes

Stephen Hughes is currently Manager Sales – TSL Smelting for Metso Outotec, based in Melbourne, Australia. In this role he is responsible for leading business development activities in relation to the applications of Metso Outotec’s Ausmelt top submerged lance (TSL) smelting technology.

• Degrees: B.Eng. (Chemical Engineering 1989) from the University of Sydney
• Industry: 8 years industrial experience at the Port Kembla copper smelter in Australia, including support of two major modernizations of the plant. 25 years experience with TSL technology across process engineering, project management and sales roles.

Process simulation and automatic control systems have a long history in Metso Outotec. Integrating the individual tools into the next generation ecosystem will be the future challenge in the industry. The seamless integration and implementation of new features into new and existing plant operations will be the key factor for success. With a large portfolio of different products in the digital field and a proven record of applications, the process simulation and process optimizers are one example of the continuous development to improve today’s sustainable technologies to the next level of excellence. Metso Outotec has introduced in 2017 the Roaster Optimizer, which is a model based advanced process control (APC) solution. The Optimizer includes process understanding and simulation expertise directly in the daily plant operation. This paper describes both the active operational optimization, based on model-based controllers as well as the integration of process simulation in the economic production planning, with the example of a roasting process.

Presenter: Marcus Runkel, Senior Product Engineer - Fluid Bed Technology, Metso Outotec, USA

Co-authors: Steffen Haus, Metso Outotec, Germany, Ralf Beyer, Metso Outotec, Germany, Joerg Hammerschmidt, Metso Outotec, Germany 

Marcus Runkel

Marcus Runkel is a senior product engineer in the Metals Processing division at Metso Outotec. For the last two decades he focused on fluidized bed technologies in the Zinc, Gold, Copper, Nickel, as well as the Oil Shale industry. Based in the United States, he currently works on project development for new roasting applications and digital plant performance optimization solutions. 

• Degrees: Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Process Engineering 2000 from the University of Applied Science in Mannheim, Germany 
• Industry: 3 years industrial experience at Schott Glas, Mainz, Germany 
  22 years experience in fluid bed roasting technology with positions in various project phases from research, process engineering, commissioning, management and sales. 

The International Copper 2022 Conference is one of the most important global events related to the research and dissemination of copper processing, its alternative uses, innovation and future challenges.

Professionals from all over the world will give life to an event that takes place every three years and brings together the most select professionals, academics and researchers to report on the advances and developments related to the mineral. The event is an excellent platform to interact with companies, professionals, researchers and consultants who are involved in the different aspects of copper mining.

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Date: November 13 to 17, 2022

City: Santiago, Chile.

Venue: Casa Piedra Event Center, Santiago, Chile.

Format: hybrid face-to-face and online mode.

Web: https://copper2022.cl