Dynamic modeling of copper flash smelting process at a Smelter in China

Due to the highly dynamic characteristic in copper smelting process at a Copper Smelter in China, it is difficult to maintain high performance level control. As a key process indicator to evaluate smelting performance, matte grade is in urgent need of being monitored online. Thus, a real-time dynamic model of predicting matte grade was developed and validated with data collected at an actual plant. Based on desulfurization ratio of copper concentrate, the model couples dynamic mass balances on each species with equilibrium relationships for major component (Cu, Fe, S, SiO2, et al.) to form a system of differential and algebraic equations. The simulation results illustrate that the maximum relative error and average relative error of matte grade between measured values and predicted value of the model proposed is 3.3%, and the average relative error is 0.54%, which verify the effectiveness of the model developed in providing the guidance for controlling the copper flash smelting process.