Glossary
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| Abbreviations |
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| Acid Regeneration | Acid regeneration is a process which enables acid to be regenerated from spent liquor. An example is the regeneration of hydrochloric acid from iron chloride liquor produced during the manufacture of synrutile (e.g. by Austpac’s ERMS SR process) or during the cleaning of steel in the manufacture of refined steel products | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Adiabatic Adsorption | Adiabatic adsorption is the process of extracting components from a gaseous mixture into solution accompanied by physical change, chemical change or both without addition or removal of heat. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Anaerobic Cooler | Anaerobic is a word meaning without air (where "air" is generally used to mean oxygen), as opposed to aerobic. An anaerobic cooler is used to prevent a reduced solid re-oxidising during the cooling process. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Agglomeration (Agglomerator) | Agglomeration is a process of generating aggregates or pellets of a particular desired size from particles of much finer size. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bankable Feasibility Study | A feasibility study is a comprehensive investigation of all technical, environmental and financial aspects of a project to determine its economic viability. A bankable feasibility study is a feasibility study which results in the provision of bank finance for the project. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bench-Scale | Chemical investigations may be trialed on the laboratory bench (referred to as “bench-scale” tests), which is a small scale operation in comparison to larger operations conducted at pilot or commercial scales. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Briquette | A small, often pillow-shaped solid (e.g. coal briquettes) formed by compressing smaller particles, with or without a binding agent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Calcining | Calcining is thermal decomposition of a material generally carried out in an oxidising atmosphere in a furnace such as a fluid bed reactor. In the ERMS SR process, calcining removes all chemically bound water and ensures that all the titanium is in the Ti(IV) state (i.e. TiO2). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Carbon Dioxide Absorption | Carbon dioxide absorption refers to the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from a process gas stream using a liquid absorbent that can be regenerated by stripping with steam. Austpac has installed an absorption system in the EARS section to remove over half of the CO2 from combustion gases. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chemical Engineer | Chemical Engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with the application of physical science (e.g. chemistry and physics), with mathematics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms. A person employed in this field has a graduate degree and is called a chemical engineer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chloride Process | The chloride process is one of two processes (the other is the sulfate process) for the manufacture of titanium dioxide pigment. Around 60% of the world’s pigment is produced by the chloride process which requires a high grade (titanium-rich) feedstock such as synthetic rutile. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chromite | Chromite is an iron magnesium chromium oxide, (Fe, Mg)Cr2O4, belonging to the spinel group of minerals. It often occurs with ilmenite in heavy mineral sand deposits. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Continuous Leach Reactor (CLR) | Leaching is the process of extracting metals or minerals from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid, often an acid. Austpac has patented a reactor for the continuous leaching of ilmenite. This produces high grade synrutile more efficiently than the batch processes currently used to upgrade ilmenite. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dioxins/Furans | Dioxins are a group of polyhalogenated compounds which are significant environmental pollutants. Dioxins occur as by-products in the manufacture of organochlorides, in the incineration of chlorine-containing substances such as PVC (polyvinyl chloride), in the bleaching of paper, and from natural sources such as volcanoes and forest fires. Furan (furane/furfuran) is a heterocyclic organic compound derived by the thermal decomposition of pentose-containing materials, cellulosic solids especially pine-wood. Furan is a toxic, colorless, flammable, highly volatile liquid with a boiling point close to room temperature. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) | Direct Reduced Iron is iron metal produced by reducing iron oxide directly as a solid without passing through a molten phase. Austpac has patented a new DRI process, “Iron Reduction”, which is used as the final step in the EARS acid regeneration process, to reduce the iron oxide pellets formed during the pyrohydrolysis of iron chloride solutions to iron pellets. These are referred to as Austpac Iron. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Divalent/Trivalent | Divalent /Trivalent mean having a valence of two or three. In chemistry, valence, valency or valency number, is a measure of the oxidation state of a given element. For example, iron may be divalent, denoted by Fe(II) or Fe2+, with compounds referred to as “ferrous”, or may be trivalent, denoted by (Fe(III) or Fe3+, with compounds referred to as “ferric”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Drying | Drying is thermal removal of liquid moisture (not chemically bound) from a material. Drying is usually accomplished by contacting moist solids with hot combustion gases generated by burning fossil fuels. In some cases, heat for drying can be provided by hot air or inert gas that has been indirectly heated. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| EARS | The Enhanced Acid Regeneration System (EARS) refers to Austpac’s patented system for regenerating fresh hydrochloric acid from iron chloride solutions (either from Austpac’s synrutile process or from liquid steel mill wastes). HCl is used to leach iron from ilmenite, for steel pickling and for swimming pool acidification. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) | An electric arc furnace is a furnace that heats charged material by means of an electric arc. Arc furnaces range in size from approximately one tonne capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to about 400 tonne units used for secondary steelmaking. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ERMS | The Enhanced Roasting and Magnetic Separation (ERMS) process is Austpac’s patented roasting technique which enhances the magnetic character (susceptibility) of ilmenite so it can be easily separated from non-titanium bearing minerals and then leached with hydrochloric acid. The ERMS SR Process combines aspects of the ERMS and EARS technologies to cost competitively produce the world's highest quality synrutile (>97% TiO2). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Filtration | Filtration is the mechanical or physical operation used to separate solids from fluids (liquids or gases) by interposing a medium through which the fluid can pass, but the solids (or at least part of the solids) in the fluid are retained by the medium (e.g. a belt filter is used in the ERMS SR process to separate the solid leached ilmenite, now synrutile, from the iron chloride-rich spent acid leach solution). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Fluid Bed Reactor | A fluid bed reactor (FBR) is a device used in many industrial applications to carry out a variety of reactions, in which a fluid (gas or liquid) is passed through a granular solid material at high enough velocities to suspend the solid and cause it to behave as though it were a fluid. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fluidization/ Fluidisation |
Fluidization is a process whereby a granular material is converted from a static solid-like state to a dynamic fluid-like state by passing a fluid (liquid or gas) up through the granular material. Like water in a bucket, the bed will conform to the volume of the chamber, its surface remaining perpendicular to gravity; objects with a lower density than the bed density will float on its surface while objects with a higher density sink to the bottom of the bed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Furnace Dust | Furnace dust is the fine material that is blown out of a furnace (e.g. blast, basic oxygen or electric arc furnaces used in the iron and steel industry). The dusts contain iron in varying amounts, and may include zinc and other volatile metals, carbon and alkali metals from the fluxes used in steel making. Contaminated dusts are a disposal problem, but the iron and other metals can be recovered by Austpac’s EARS/Iron Reduction process. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Gangue | Gangue is the non-valuable fraction of a mineral suite as opposed to the valuable component. Gangue may be separated from the valuable constituents using a variety of processing applications. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Garnet | A family of mineral silicates of aluminum, iron, manganese, chromium, calcium, and magnesium occurring as accessory minerals in a wide range of igneous rocks and as the finest crystals in some metamorphic rocks. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Grade | Grade is the relative quantity (or the percentage) of metal or mineral content in an ore product or in a reserve of minerals. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Hematite | Hematite (hæmatite) is the mineral form of Iron(III) oxide (Fe2O3), one of several iron oxides. Hematite has the same crystal structure as ilmenite. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Hydrochloric Acid | Hydrochloric acid is the solution of up to 33% by weight of hydrogen chloride (HCl) in water. It is a corrosive, strong mineral acid and has major industrial uses. It is found naturally in gastric acid. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hydrogeological Study |
A hydrogeological study is an assessment of the distribution and movement of groundwater in the soil and rocks of the Earth's crust. Permeable rocks which carry significant volumes of groundwater are referred to as aquifers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Ilmenite | Ilmenite is an iron and titanium oxide (FeTiO3) belonging to the spinel group of minerals, and is the principle ore of titanium. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Iron Ore Fines | Iron ore fines are the smallest size components of iron ore (generally less than 5mm in size) resulting from blasting and shoveling in mining operations. The fines are of reduced value because of the issues arising from handling the fine grained particles. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Iron Reduction | Iron reduction (metallisation) is a process that uses a reductant such as carbon to remove oxygen from iron oxides to form metallic iron (e.g.2FeO+C=2Fe+CO2). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| IRR | The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is the annualized effective compounded return rate (or yield) which can be earned on the invested capital used to assess an investment in a commercial project. It is an indicator of the efficiency or quality of an investment, as opposed to net present value (NPV), which indicates value or magnitude. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Leaching | Leaching is the process of extracting elements or compounds from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid, either in nature or through an industrial process. Austpac has patented a reactor for the continuous leaching of ilmenite which produces high grade synrutile more efficiently than the batch processes currently used to upgrade ilmenite. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Low Temperature Roasting (LTR) | Austpac’s low temperature roasting process is used to increase the magnetic susceptibility of ilmenite without changing its chemical characteristics so facilitating the removal of deleterious minerals in the ilmenite concentrate such a chromite. LTR-roasted ilmenite can be used to make titanium dioxide pigment using either the chloride and sulfate route processes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Magnetic Separation |
Magnetic separation is the use of appropriate magnets to separate magnetic and non-magnetic materials from mixed product streams.
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Magnetic Susceptibility |
Magnetic susceptibility is the degree of magnetization of a material in response to an applied magnetic field. Materials of different magnetic susceptibility can be separated physically using the appropriate kind of magnetic separator. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Metalliser (Metallisation) | Metallisation is the process of converting a metal oxide to metal by chemical reduction (removal of oxygen). Metalliser is Austpac’s term for the proprietary equipment used in the last stage of the EARS process to change iron oxide pellets from pyrohydrolysis into a direct reduced iron pellet. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Mill Scale | Mill scale refers to the iron oxide product lost during the steel milling or rolling process; as much as 5% of the iron can be released as mill scale. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Payback (Project Payback) | Payback is the time period from commencement of construction up to the time when all capital costs (plus interest) have been recovered from project operations. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Prefeasibility Study | A prefeasibility study is an analysis of those key technical, environmental and commercial aspects of a project which are assessed as potentially capable of rendering a project unviable. A successful prefeasibility study is likely to lead to the undertaking of a full scale feasibility study of every aspect of the project. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Preheating | The initial heating of a substance, usually using waste hot gas streams, to dry and prepare it for higher temperature treatment (e.g. roasting). The ERMS SR process uses a preheater in the ilmenite roasting train and a preheater to dry and heat the leached ilmenite prior to calcination. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Pyrohydrolysis | Pyrohydrolysis is the decomposition of a material by the combined action of heat and water vapor. Austpac uses pyrohydrolysis to convert metal chloride solutions, such as Spent Leach Liquor (from synrutile manufacture) or Spent Pickle Liquor (from steel pickling lines) into hydrochloric acid and metal oxide, predominantly as iron oxide. The general chemical formula for this reaction is given in the EARS section of this web site. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Pyrometallurgy | Pyrometallurgy, a branch of extractive metallurgy, is the thermal treatment of minerals and metallurgical ores and concentrates to bring about physical and chemical transformations in the materials to enable recovery of metals. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Reductant | A reductant (reducing agent) is the element or compound in a redox (reduction-oxidation) reaction that reduces another species. In doing so, it becomes oxidized, and is therefore the electron donor in the redox. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Refining | Refining is the removal of impurities from materials by a thermal process. This covers a wide range of processes, involving different kinds of furnaces or other equipment. The term, 'refining' can also refer to certain electrolytic processes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Refractory Lined Roaster | A roaster generally comprises a steel shell which is internally lined with a material (“refractory”) able to withstand temperatures higher than the melting point of the shell, so the roaster can sustain long term, continuous, high temperature operation. Electric arc furnaces are refractory lined, and some of the fluid bed roasters used in the ERMS SR process are also lined with refractory materials. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Roasting (Roaster) | Roasting consists of thermal gas-solid reactions, which can include oxidation, reduction, and pyrohydrolysis. A roaster is a vessel used for roasting. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Scale Up Factor | The multiplier calculated in physical dimensions when a smaller, demonstration or pilot scale facility is expanded for fully commercial operations. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Slag (Titania Slag) | A process whereby ilmenite is smelted in an electric furnace with a reductant to separate it into iron metal (pig iron) and a vitreous phase containing the titanium and other elements that is removed as “slag”. Titania slag can be used as a feed stock for both the sulfate and the chloride TiO2 pigment processes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Smelting | Smelting involves thermal reactions at a temperature in which at least one product is in the molten phase. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Spent Leach Liquor | Spent leach liquor is the iron chloride solution formed when iron is removed from ilmenite by leaching with hydrochloric acid during the ERMS SR process. It is essentially the same as spent pickle liquor, but derived from a different process. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Spent Pickle Liquor | In the steel industry, products such as coated or galvanized steel must be cleaned to remove surface oxide scale prior to being finished. The cleaning process is termed “pickling”, and is generally achieved in a bath of hydrochloric acid which removes the iron scale and forms an iron chloride solution. The acid concentration depletes and iron chloride increases over time until the bath is “spent”, and the solution, called spent pickle liquor, (SPL), is removed from the bath and replaced with fresh acid. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Steel Mill Waste | Waste products from a commercial steel mill, including Spent Pickle Liquor, Mill Scale and Furnace Dust, that can be recycled by the EARS process to produce iron metal and hydrochloric acid. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Stratigraphy | Stratigraphy is the study of the composition, sequence and correlation of stratified rocks. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sub-Stoichiometric Combustion | Sub-Stoichiometric Combustion occurs when the oxygen supplied (from air) is insufficient to fully combust the fuel, i.e. the fuel is in excess. This creates a reducing atmosphere in the roaster. This can also be termed Gasification. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sulfuric (Sulphuric) Acid | Sulfuric (or sulphuric) acid, H2SO4, is a strong mineral acid. It is soluble in water at all concentrations. Sulfuric acid has many applications, and is a very important industrial chemical. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sulfateable (Sulphateable) Ilmenite |
Ilmenite which can be dissolved in sulfuric acid to release the titanium component and thus is a feedstock for the sulfate TiO2 pigment process. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sulfate (Sulphate) Process | The sulfate process, developed in the early 1900s, is one of two processes (the other is the chloride process) used to manufacture of titanium dioxide pigment. The sulfate process reacts titanium ore with sulfuric acid to form titanyl sulfate which is separated, purified, hydrolysed and calcined to produce titanium dioxide pigment. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Super Azeotrope | Hydrochloric acid and water form a constant boiling mixture (an azeotrope); the maximum strength that can be made by heating contains 20.4% HCl by weight. Concentrated acid contains 33% HCl by weight, and is made by absorbing hydrogen chlorine gas in water. Acid containing more than 20.4% HCl is termed super azeotropic. The EARS process is the only pyrohydrolysis process that can regenerate super azeotropic HCl; generally 25% HCl is made. This is sufficiently strong to hasten ilmenite leaching and reduce the water balance in an ERMS SR plant, therefore saving energy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synthetic Rutile (Synrutile, SR) |
Rutile is a natural titanium-rich mineral found in some heavy mineral deposits, which contains up to 96% titanium dioxide, TiO2. Synthetic rutile (Synrutile) was first produced in 1948, and in its very pure form it is transparent and almost colorless (slightly yellow). Austpac ERMS SR process produces the world’s highest grade synthetic rutile (over 97% TiO2), which can be used to make TiO2 pigment and because of its purity, can be used to make titanium metal. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Tank Farm | Austpac established a tank farm next to the process tower for the secure and safe storage of spent leach liquor, pickle liquor and fresh hydrochloric acid, and also to recycle process water and to capture all storm water runoff, both saving water and ensuring that the plant produces no liquid effluents. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venturi Scrubbing | A venturi scrubber is designed to effectively use the energy from the inlet gas stream to atomize the liquid being used to scrub (clean) the gas stream. Venturi scrubbers can be used to collect both particulate and gaseous constituents of the hot gas. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Zircon | Zircon is the chief ore of zirconium composed of zirconium, silicon and oxygen (ZrSiO4). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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