Abstract

In Chile, there are several mining companies that crystallize copper sulfate pentahydrate using freshwater; however, it would be interesting to know the effect of seawater in the process design of copper sulfate pentahydrate crystals, considering the low freshwater availability in the mining zones. In the present work, three different processes are proposed for obtaining copper sulfate pentahydrate crystals using seawater, by means of the addition of sulfuric acid. These were evaluated and compared in terms of their mass and energy balances. The first process (Case 1) is composed of crystallization, heating/mixing, recrystallization, centrifugation, and drying stages. In the second process (Case 2), the recirculation of the solution from the recrystallization to the crystallization stage is added. In the third process (Case 3), the heating/mixing and recrystallization stages are eliminated, considering one crystallization stage along with centrifugation and drying. The results of the Mass and Energy balances showed that there is high energy consumption associated with the heating/mixing and recrystallization stages, so the process that does not contain these stages (Case 3) is the most convenient from an energy point of view. On the other hand, the results indicated that the highest yield (97.17%) of the process is obtained when the recirculation of the solution is added from the recrystallization to the crystallization stages (Case 2), followed for the yield of 94.41% obtained in the process where the heating/mixing and recrystallization stages are eliminated (Case 3), which would make it the most convenient process from an energy and production point of view.

Graphical Abstract

中文翻译：

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利用硫酸铜-硫酸-海水的固液平衡获得硫酸铜晶体的工艺设计

摘要

在智利，有几家采矿公司使用淡水使五水合硫酸铜结晶。但是，考虑到矿区淡水的利用率低，了解海水在五水合硫酸铜晶体加工设计中的作用会很有趣。在目前的工作中，提出了三种不同的方法，通过使用海水通过添加硫酸来获得五水合硫酸铜。对它们进行了质量和能量平衡的评估和比较。第一个过程（案例1）由结晶，加热/混合，重结晶，离心和干燥阶段组成。在第二种方法（案例2）中，添加了从重结晶到结晶阶段的溶液再循环。在第三个过程中（案例3），考虑到一个结晶阶段以及离心和干燥，省去了加热/混合和重结晶阶段。质量和能量平衡的结果表明，与加热/混合和重结晶阶段相关的能量消耗很高，因此从能量的角度来看，不包含这些阶段的过程（案例3）最为方便。另一方面，结果表明，当从重结晶到结晶阶段（案例2）添加溶液的再循环时，该方法的收率最高（97.17％），其次是收率94.41％。取消了加热/混合和重结晶阶段的过程（案例3），从能源和生产的角度来看，这将使其成为最方便的过程。

图形概要