Hydrometallurgy Of Zinc Electrowinning Process Parameter Optimization

Like other metallurgy industry, aim of Zinc hydrometallurgy lays emphasis on high quality, high yield, low power consumption in technological development in order to make more economic benefit for enterprise. Zinc hydrometallurgy is a process of high current drain. Now,energy sources is growing increasingly tense and the price of energy keeps on increasing in the world,.it is so rich in significance for decreasing power consumption and cost of production that improve behavior in service of electrical power. In current, some technological conditions are adopted such as controlling power consumption by amending H₂SO₄:Zn of electrolyte, cathode current density, temperature of electrolyte etc. according to their own practical circumstances in most zinc factory, but it is very complicated to choose appropriate technological conditions. So we have done many studies for some technological conditions of zinc electrowinning, and the result of study has been of help to improve the technological conditions of zinc electrowinning in zinc hydrometallurgy.After analyzed synthetically the technology condition which effected electric power consumption in electrowinning process, some basic content were studied as follow: (1) the effect of the zinc sulfate electrolyte with varying levels of zinc and sulfuric acid concentration on the electrolyte density at different temperature;(2) the effect of the zinc sulfate electrolyte with varying levels of zinc and sulfuric acid concentration on the electrical conductivity at different temperature;(3) the effect of the zinc sulfate electrolyte with varying levels of zinc and sulfuric acid concentration on the cell voltage during electrowinning process;(4) the effect of the zinc sulfate electrolyte with varying levels of zinc and sulfuric acid concentration on the current efficiency during electrowinning process;(5) the effect of the zinc sulfate electrolyte with varying levels of zinc and sulfuric acid concentration on the electrical power consumption during electrowinning process.During study, the experiment conditions selected in this study simulated the range of modern industrial zinc electrowinning electrolytes. The test conditions were confirmed: zinc concentration was 40⁶5g/L, sulfuric acid concentration was 100²00g/L, electrowinning temperature was 30⁵5°C. Test was done: (1) density and of electrical conductivity of zinc sulfate electrolyte with varying levels of zinc and sulfuric acid concentration in different temperature was determined;(2) cell voltage of zinc sulfate electrolyte with varying levels of zinc and sulfuric acid concentration was measured at 40°C;(3) cathode zinc was weighed up after electrowinning and its mass was gained. .variational laws among each parameters were found through test, regression analysis method was used to analyzed the experimental date which was gained, and regression equations were deduced. These equations can help us to analyze some practical questions of zinc electrowinning, and provide definite guidance for use status of improving electrical power in hydrometallurgy of zinc, optimizing technical condition.