TREATMENT AND MINIMIZATION OF WASTES IN ONAHAMA SMELTER

摘要

Onahama Smelter has two green-chargereverberatory furnaces and the annual smeltin8 capacity is 600thousand tons copper concentrate. In addition to the concentrate,various kind of industrial wastes has been processed and utilized.First, the brick waste from converter is ground and used as rawmaterial of castable for repairing the copper melt launders.Second, the slag containing calcium-sulfide from other foundryis fed to the reverberatory furnaces. Calcium sulfide is oxidizedto CaO. The melting rate of concentrate is accelerated and theslag loss is decreased. Third, the tip tire made of waste car tire ischarged into the reverberatory furnaces as fuel. The steam ofwaste heat boiler for turbine generators has been increased so asto decrease the electricity cost. Fourth, the sulfur accretion fromother chemical plant is blended into the copper concentrate andthe sulfur is recovered as the gypsum for sale. Fifth, theprocessed waste oil has been utilized in the copper concentratedryer by which the smelting capacity was increased effectively.Consequently, Onahama smelter contributes to the society byprocessing the wastes to the harmless slag and utilizing them asfuel through the copper smelting.