Flue Dust Reactions and Sticking Mechanisms in a Copper Flash Smelting Furnace Waste Heat Boiler - A Sampling Study

Formation of accretion layers within the copper Flash Smelting Furnace Waste Heat Boiler is a serious operational concern, as it can potentially increase boiler downtime and hence limit continuous production. In previous Computational Fluid Dynamics studies, the accretion formation was predicted for an industrial-scaleWaste Heat Boiler, using a dust stickiness sub-routine of the model. In this study, a dust sampling campaign was used to validate this stickiness sub-routine. Furthermore, sticking and reaction mechanisms of flue dust were investigated and compared to thermodynamic predictions. While the sub-routine was validated, the comparison of thermodynamics and species in the samples showed that the thermodynamic conversion limit was not reached for the investigated species.