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Metals Processing Plant Improves Up-Time and Efficiency, Lowers Costs with the SONARtrac Flow Monitoring System
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Benefits
- SONARtrac flowmeters provide accurate, repeatable flow measurement in high solids-content slurries providing more accurate mass balance
- Eliminates maintenance expense due to electrode and flowtube cleaning/replacement as a result of scaling
- Clamp-on installation eliminates process down-time
- Rapid return-on-investment demonstrated with clamp-on SONARtrac flowmeters versus existing magmeters
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Process
About 80% of the world's primary copper is produced from sulphide ores such as chalcopyrite (copper iron sulfide, CuFeS2), which contain on average of 1% copper. Typically, the ore is crushed into fine powder, and then separated by means of a flotation process. Volumetric flow measurements are required to maintain process control and efficiency.
Challenge
The typical technology for measuring volumetric flow in flotation circuits is the magmeter. But for this customer, severe scaling of electrodes and flowtubes in existing magmeters caused unacceptable variations in performance.
In order to achieve an acceptable level of performance, a maintenance schedule was established to clean the electrodes and flowtubes at frequent intervals before scaling affected the measurement. After several cleanings, replacement of electrodes and flowtubes is required. Eventually, the entire magmeter requires replacement due to damage caused by the frequent maintenance cycles. In addition to the high maintenance cost, the indirect cost of process down-time was highly undesirable due to the need to increase plant output to take advantage of current high base metal prices.
SONARtrac Solution
The customer has replaced existing magmeters with SONARtrac flowmeters. The SONARtrac flowmeters clamp onto the steel pipes and have no wetted parts that can be affected by scaling caused by the process fluid. In addition, the SONARtrac flowmeters have delivered improved accuracy versus the magmeters due to the fact that performance does not undergo degradation cycles due to scale buildup on electrodes and flowtubes followed by removal/cleaning. Measurement repeatability also improved due to the elimination of flowtube and meter replacement.
The customer's investment in SONARtrac flowmeters is expected to deliver a rapid payback due to lower maintenance costs and improved process efficiency.
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