ABSTRACT

In the present study, a sustainable production of boric acid from colemanite mineral and sulfuric acid was investigated, considering waste treatment and colemanite mineral processing costs. The purchasing price of sulfuric acid and the selling price of boric acid obtained from the market were used as $50/t and $900/t, respectively, to perform the simulation via professional SuperPro designer (v.9.0). The effect of the colemanite mineral price was investigated between $50 and $250/t for a 100 kt.y⁻¹ plant capacity. The effect of a waste treatment cost was investigated by applying values between $10 and $50/ton for a 100 kt.y⁻¹ plant capacity. The annual waste treatment cost was calculated using the value of $50/ton and was found to be $9.3 M, which contributes to the operating cost by 13.4%. The most significant components that influenced the boric acid production costs were determined to be the facility-dependence (41.9%) and cost of the raw materials (30.3%). The fixed capital investment and annual operating costs of the boric acid plant are calculated as $170.7 M and $70.1 M/y, respectively, for a 100 kt.y⁻¹ capacity. The unit production cost of boric acid having an impurity of <100 ppm was calculated as $0.70 kg⁻¹. Therefore, a payback time of 6.3 years was estimated from the economic analysis of a commercial boric acid production process including environmental impacts.

摘要

在本研究中，考虑到废物处理和硬硼钙石矿物加工成本，研究了从硬钙石矿物和硫酸可持续生产硼酸。从市场上获得的硫酸采购价和硼酸售价分别为$50/t和$900/t，通过专业的SuperPro设计师（v.9.0）进行模拟。对于 100 kt.y ^-1的工厂产能，钙硼石矿物价格的影响在 50 美元到 250 美元/吨之间进行了调查。^{通过对 100 kt.y -1}应用 10 美元到 50 美元/吨之间的值来研究废物处理成本的影响工厂产能。每年的废物处理成本使用 50 美元/吨的值计算，发现为 930 万美元，占运营成本的 13.4%。影响硼酸生产成本的最重要因素被确定为设备依赖性（41.9%）和原材料成本（30.3%）。对于 100 kt.y ^-1的产能，硼酸厂的固定资本投资和年运营成本分别计算为 1.707 亿美元和 7010 万美元/年。杂质<100 ppm的硼酸的单位生产成本计算为$0.70 kg ^-1。因此，从包括环境影响在内的商业硼酸生产过程的经济分析中估计，投资回收期为 6.3 年。