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Preliminary Study of Smelting of Indonesian Nickel Laterite Ore using an Electric Arc Furnace
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings 13 (2019) 127–131
www.materialstoday.com/proceedings
ICAMST 2018
Preliminary Study of Smelting of Indonesian Nickel Laterite Ore using an Electric Arc Furnace Yayat Iman Supriyatnaa,*, Iqbal Huda Sihotangb, Sudibyoa b
a Research Unit for Mineral Technologi, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jl Ir Sutami Km 15 - South Lampung Material and Metallurgical Engineering, Kalimantan Institute of Technology, Jalan Sukarno Hatta KM. 15, KarangJoang, North Balikpapan, Balikpapan City, East Kalimantan 76127
Abstract Nickel is one of the most important metals in industry. Sources of nickel can be classified into two groups: sulfide and laterite ores. Now, laterite ore is more potential. Due to its problem, this research aims to find an effective way of processing laterite ore. The nickel content from laterite ore was analyzed by variation of particle size. The highest nickel content from nickel laterite ore of this research is the sample with particle size is -80#100 mesh. The preliminary study of smelting of Indonesian laterite nickel ore using PKSC as reductant shows that the best Ni extraction is 89,35%. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of The 6th International Conference on Advanced Materials Science and Technology 2018, 6th ICAMST. Keywords: nickel laterite; ore; particle size; content distribution; smelting; electric arc furnace
1. Introduction Nickel is one of the most important metals in the industry due to its unique physicochemical characteristics, the most important of which include its strength, high temperature stability, corrosion resistance, malleability, ductility, heat and electrical conductive properties, and aesthetic properties [1]. It makes nickel has many applications and has
*
Corresponden author: Telp. : +62-813-2462-3381 Email address: [email protected]
2214-7853© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of The 6th International Conference on Advanced Materials Science and Technology 2018, 6th ICAMST.
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Supriyatna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 13 (2019) 127–131
been made into a various product in the industry such as fine metal, powder, sponge, and others [2]. Principal industries consuming nickel are the chemical, petroleum, power, and process applications which account for about one quarter of the nickel consumed [3]. As much as 65% of the nickel metal is used in stainless steel, 12% is consumed as superalloy and non-ferrous alloys [4]. Total production of nickel has increased more than 10-fold since1950, when sulphides accounted for as much as 90% of the world’ snickel, laterites do now produce more than 40% [5]. Following to continuous demand of nickel has made the sources of nickel was more depletion. Sources of nickel can be classified into two groups: sulfide ores and laterite ores (oxides and silicates). Until now, sulfide ore is the main source of nickel production, which is about 60% of total production. It is because sulfide ore has higher nickel content than laterite ore. Whereas 70% of the world's nickel reserves are based on laterite ores [2]. However, the high production of nickel from sulfide ore makes the depletion of sulfide ore deposits. So the future of nickel production comes more from nickel laterite ore [6]. Nickel laterite ore has nickel content of 1-1.5%. The nickel content on nickel laterite ore was affected by climate condition in the ore region was located [7]. One of the largest nickel reserves regions is in Indonesia. Indonesia is the third country, which has the most laterite reserves after New Caledonia and the Philippines. Indonesia has 1.576 million tons of laterite from a total of 3,900 million tons of resources [8]. The largest one of that is located in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi. This laterite nickel ore is still not processed in Indonesia due to its low content. Several investigations of nickel laterite ore reduction have been performed. The reducing agents used in previous studies were CO, hydrogen, sulfur, coke and coal [9]. The use of fossil fuels such as coke and coal has led to an increase in Greenhouse Gas in the atmosphere from 280 ppm to 390 ppm which has a serious impact on global warming [10]. Recently, the use of biomass as a reducing agent and fuel in the reduction process has attracted a lot of attention.Therefore, this research aims to find an effective way of processing nickel laterite ore. Specifically, the effect of particle size of the ore toward nickel content on the ore and preliminary study smelting using Electric Arc Furnace with palm kernel shell charcoal (PKSC) as reducing agent are investigated. 2. Experimental This research studied about the preliminary study of smelting laterite nickel ore. This research included several experimental stages as follows: (1) preparation of nickel laterite ore, (2) ore separation into several size using sieve, (3) ore characterization with the variation of ore particle sizes, and (4) analysis of the data, (5) the smelting nickel laterite ore used palm kernel shell as a reductant in the electric arc furnace. Nickel laterite ore from Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi were used. Nickel laterite ore was prepared using ball mill machine to refine the size from the raw ore before. The product then was sieved by siever with particle size of 80-200 mesh. This resulted nickel laterite ore samples with the ore size was #80, -80#100, -100#150, -150#200, and -200 mesh. Then, the samples were characterized by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) to determine the chemical compositions of each sample. After that characterization, data was analyzed with characterization by x-ray diffraction (XRD) to identify the mineral phases of the raw ore samples using CuKα radiation, in the 2θ range 10o to 80o.The particle size with highest Ni content was used as raw material for smelting. The last process was to do smelting test using an electric arc furnace. Before the smelting process, laterite nickel was first mixed with palm kernel shell charcoal (PKSC), then made into pellets. Variation in this smelting process is the use of PKS (1000 g, 1500 g, and 2000 g). 3. Results and discussions Nickel laterite ore used in this research is a type of limonite derived from Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi. The appearance of samples shown in Fig. 1.
Supriyatna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 13 (2019) 127–131
129
Fig. 1. Pomalaa nickel laterite ore sample The chemical composition of each sample of the ore was performed using the XRF analysis (Table 1). The results show that the ore has relatively low nickel content and has fairly high iron content. This is related to the characteristic of limonite ore type. Palm kernel shell charcoal from Tanjung Bintang, South Lampung were used. The samples were characterized by proximate analysis. The results of the proximate analysis are shown in Table 2. Table 1. The results of the experiment with a variation of size particle of nickel laterite ore Content
Size Particle #80
-80 #100
-100 #150
-150 #200
-200
LE
45,533
40,077
41,593
41,015
40,547
Fe
44,5465
47,071
45,4945
45,754
45,459
Si
2,0555
2,081
1,695
2,125
2,0635
Al
2
2,2245
1,917
2,1475
2,01
Cr
1,3055
1,459
1,4595
1,423
1,437
Ni
1,094
1,1765
1,1235
1,133
1,1065
Cl
1,353
1,2065
1,316
1,524
1,7255
MnO
1,152
1,347
1,385
1,2415
1,1815
K
0,7385
1,031
1,349
1,615
1,466
S
0,2085
0,2185
0,205
0,2075
0,206
Ca
0,1235
0,1305
0,1245
0,141
0,1365
P
0,059
0,0625
0,0515
0,056
0,0495
Ti
0,0405
0,0305
0,0465
0,043
0,045
V
0,025
0,0305
0,027
0,0275
0,025
Zn
0,025
0,0305
0,028
0,029
0,026
Table 2. The palm kernel shell proximate analysis Information
Content (%)
Fixed Carbon
77
Volatile
25.7
Ash
21
Moisture
0.43
Nickel content in the ore with particle size #80 meshes is the lowest among all ore particle size with the value of 1.094%, whereas the ore with particle size of -80-100 shows the highest nickel content with the value of 1.177%.
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Overall, the nickel content in all ore particle sizes is not significantly different. Effect of ore particel size toward nickel content on the ore is shown in Fig. 2. 1.4 1.3 1.1765
%Ni
1.2
1.133
1.1235
1.094
1.1065
1.1 1 0.9 0.8 #80
-80 #100 -100 #150 -150 #200 Ore Particle Size (Mesh)
-200
Fig. 2. Effect of ore particle size toward nickel content on the ore
X-ray diffraction (XRD) wasused to identify the mineral phases of the raw ore samples. Identification of compounds on nickel laterite ore sample test was done with a 2θ position from 10o to 80o and uses a CuKa wavelength of 1.54056 Å. The nickel laterite ore tested with XRD has been sieved first up to -200 meshes. The XRD test resulted in the peak of the compound. As shown in Fig. 3. it can be seen the phases that exist in nickel laterite ore. From the peak analysis, the most dominant phase in lateritic nickel ore is goethite ((Fe, Ni, Al) O (OH)). There is also a quartz phase (SiO2), maghemite (ɣ-Fe2O3), taenite (ɣ-FeNi) and talc {Mg3Si4O10 (OH)2}.
Fig. 3. XRD pattern of raw nickel laterite ore Table.3. The results of the experiment with a variation of the composition of palm kernel shell charcoal No
Time of smelting (minute)
Nickel laterite (gr)
PKSC (gr)
Limestone (gr)
NPI (gr)
Slag (gr)
% Ni in NPI
% Fe in NPI
Ni Extraction (%)
1 2 3
90 90 90
9.700 9.700 9.700
1.000 1.500 2.000
800 800 800
1.650 2.500 3.300
5.300 4.950 2.550
3,42 3,70 3,09
87,80 90,00 90,07
49,45 81,05 89,35
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Smelting process was done with the variation of the composition of palm kernel shell charcoal as a reluctant. Temperature measurements are made using an infrared thermometer prior to the smelting process of the metal and slag. The weight of metal products and slag was shown in Table 3. From the results shown in Table 3., it can be seen that 2000 g of palm kernel shell charcoal is the optimum condition to produced nickel laterite ore based on the presentation of Ni extraction. Further it shows that at 1000 g the reduction process is not maximal because the supply of carbon is not enough to reduce the ore into metal. 4. Conclusion Ore particle size affects the nickel content from the raw nickel laterite ore. The highest nickel content was resulted from the ore particle size of -80#100 meshes, whereas the ore particle size that has the lowest nickel content is #80 meshes. These results suggest that smoothing process of nickel laterite ore using ball millis needed to make the effective way during the processing nickel laterite ore into metals. Results from the preliminary study of smelting of Indonesian laterite nickel ore using PKSC as reducing agent show that the best Ni extraction is 89.35% with 2.000 g PKSC. Acknowledgment The authors gratefully acknowledge a Research Unit for Mineral Technology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) for financial and other support for this research. References [1] [2] [3] [4]
G. Pyle, P.Couture, Homeostasis and Toxiology of Esential Metals, Elsevier Inc,2011, pp.253-289. J. Kim, G. Dodbiba, H. Tanno, K. Okaya, S. Matsuo, T. Fujita, Miner. Eng. 23 (2010) 282-288. R.R Moskalyk, A.M. Alfantazi, Miner. Eng. 15 ( 2002)593-605. Y.J. Li, Y.S. Sun, Y.X Han, P.Gao, Coal Based Reduction Mechanism of Low Grade Laterite Ore, T. Nonferr. Metal. Soc. 23 (2013) 34283433. [5] A.Oxley, N.Barcza, Miner. Eng. (2013). [6] Kyle, Nickel Laterite Processing Technologies - Where to Next. Murdoch University Repository, 2010. [7] A.Warner, J. Metall (2006) 11-20. [8] S. R. Saleh, Nickel Processing and Refining Technology, Jakarta: Research and Development Center for Mineral and Coal Technology, 2013. [9] B.Li, H.Wang, Y.Wei, The Reduction of Nickel from Low-Grade Nickel Laterite Ore using A Solid State Deoxidisation Method, J. Miner. Eng. 24 (2011)1556-1562. [10] M. Zhang, Y.C Yuan, Y.Z. Liu, J. Energ Res. 21 (2005) 15-19.
ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings 13 (2019) 127–131
www.materialstoday.com/proceedings
ICAMST 2018
Preliminary Study of Smelting of Indonesian Nickel Laterite Ore using an Electric Arc Furnace Yayat Iman Supriyatnaa,*, Iqbal Huda Sihotangb, Sudibyoa b
a Research Unit for Mineral Technologi, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jl Ir Sutami Km 15 - South Lampung Material and Metallurgical Engineering, Kalimantan Institute of Technology, Jalan Sukarno Hatta KM. 15, KarangJoang, North Balikpapan, Balikpapan City, East Kalimantan 76127
Abstract Nickel is one of the most important metals in industry. Sources of nickel can be classified into two groups: sulfide and laterite ores. Now, laterite ore is more potential. Due to its problem, this research aims to find an effective way of processing laterite ore. The nickel content from laterite ore was analyzed by variation of particle size. The highest nickel content from nickel laterite ore of this research is the sample with particle size is -80#100 mesh. The preliminary study of smelting of Indonesian laterite nickel ore using PKSC as reductant shows that the best Ni extraction is 89,35%. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of The 6th International Conference on Advanced Materials Science and Technology 2018, 6th ICAMST. Keywords: nickel laterite; ore; particle size; content distribution; smelting; electric arc furnace
1. Introduction Nickel is one of the most important metals in the industry due to its unique physicochemical characteristics, the most important of which include its strength, high temperature stability, corrosion resistance, malleability, ductility, heat and electrical conductive properties, and aesthetic properties [1]. It makes nickel has many applications and has
*
Corresponden author: Telp. : +62-813-2462-3381 Email address: [email protected]
2214-7853© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of The 6th International Conference on Advanced Materials Science and Technology 2018, 6th ICAMST.
128
Supriyatna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 13 (2019) 127–131
been made into a various product in the industry such as fine metal, powder, sponge, and others [2]. Principal industries consuming nickel are the chemical, petroleum, power, and process applications which account for about one quarter of the nickel consumed [3]. As much as 65% of the nickel metal is used in stainless steel, 12% is consumed as superalloy and non-ferrous alloys [4]. Total production of nickel has increased more than 10-fold since1950, when sulphides accounted for as much as 90% of the world’ snickel, laterites do now produce more than 40% [5]. Following to continuous demand of nickel has made the sources of nickel was more depletion. Sources of nickel can be classified into two groups: sulfide ores and laterite ores (oxides and silicates). Until now, sulfide ore is the main source of nickel production, which is about 60% of total production. It is because sulfide ore has higher nickel content than laterite ore. Whereas 70% of the world's nickel reserves are based on laterite ores [2]. However, the high production of nickel from sulfide ore makes the depletion of sulfide ore deposits. So the future of nickel production comes more from nickel laterite ore [6]. Nickel laterite ore has nickel content of 1-1.5%. The nickel content on nickel laterite ore was affected by climate condition in the ore region was located [7]. One of the largest nickel reserves regions is in Indonesia. Indonesia is the third country, which has the most laterite reserves after New Caledonia and the Philippines. Indonesia has 1.576 million tons of laterite from a total of 3,900 million tons of resources [8]. The largest one of that is located in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi. This laterite nickel ore is still not processed in Indonesia due to its low content. Several investigations of nickel laterite ore reduction have been performed. The reducing agents used in previous studies were CO, hydrogen, sulfur, coke and coal [9]. The use of fossil fuels such as coke and coal has led to an increase in Greenhouse Gas in the atmosphere from 280 ppm to 390 ppm which has a serious impact on global warming [10]. Recently, the use of biomass as a reducing agent and fuel in the reduction process has attracted a lot of attention.Therefore, this research aims to find an effective way of processing nickel laterite ore. Specifically, the effect of particle size of the ore toward nickel content on the ore and preliminary study smelting using Electric Arc Furnace with palm kernel shell charcoal (PKSC) as reducing agent are investigated. 2. Experimental This research studied about the preliminary study of smelting laterite nickel ore. This research included several experimental stages as follows: (1) preparation of nickel laterite ore, (2) ore separation into several size using sieve, (3) ore characterization with the variation of ore particle sizes, and (4) analysis of the data, (5) the smelting nickel laterite ore used palm kernel shell as a reductant in the electric arc furnace. Nickel laterite ore from Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi were used. Nickel laterite ore was prepared using ball mill machine to refine the size from the raw ore before. The product then was sieved by siever with particle size of 80-200 mesh. This resulted nickel laterite ore samples with the ore size was #80, -80#100, -100#150, -150#200, and -200 mesh. Then, the samples were characterized by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) to determine the chemical compositions of each sample. After that characterization, data was analyzed with characterization by x-ray diffraction (XRD) to identify the mineral phases of the raw ore samples using CuKα radiation, in the 2θ range 10o to 80o.The particle size with highest Ni content was used as raw material for smelting. The last process was to do smelting test using an electric arc furnace. Before the smelting process, laterite nickel was first mixed with palm kernel shell charcoal (PKSC), then made into pellets. Variation in this smelting process is the use of PKS (1000 g, 1500 g, and 2000 g). 3. Results and discussions Nickel laterite ore used in this research is a type of limonite derived from Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi. The appearance of samples shown in Fig. 1.
Supriyatna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 13 (2019) 127–131
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Fig. 1. Pomalaa nickel laterite ore sample The chemical composition of each sample of the ore was performed using the XRF analysis (Table 1). The results show that the ore has relatively low nickel content and has fairly high iron content. This is related to the characteristic of limonite ore type. Palm kernel shell charcoal from Tanjung Bintang, South Lampung were used. The samples were characterized by proximate analysis. The results of the proximate analysis are shown in Table 2. Table 1. The results of the experiment with a variation of size particle of nickel laterite ore Content
Size Particle #80
-80 #100
-100 #150
-150 #200
-200
LE
45,533
40,077
41,593
41,015
40,547
Fe
44,5465
47,071
45,4945
45,754
45,459
Si
2,0555
2,081
1,695
2,125
2,0635
Al
2
2,2245
1,917
2,1475
2,01
Cr
1,3055
1,459
1,4595
1,423
1,437
Ni
1,094
1,1765
1,1235
1,133
1,1065
Cl
1,353
1,2065
1,316
1,524
1,7255
MnO
1,152
1,347
1,385
1,2415
1,1815
K
0,7385
1,031
1,349
1,615
1,466
S
0,2085
0,2185
0,205
0,2075
0,206
Ca
0,1235
0,1305
0,1245
0,141
0,1365
P
0,059
0,0625
0,0515
0,056
0,0495
Ti
0,0405
0,0305
0,0465
0,043
0,045
V
0,025
0,0305
0,027
0,0275
0,025
Zn
0,025
0,0305
0,028
0,029
0,026
Table 2. The palm kernel shell proximate analysis Information
Content (%)
Fixed Carbon
77
Volatile
25.7
Ash
21
Moisture
0.43
Nickel content in the ore with particle size #80 meshes is the lowest among all ore particle size with the value of 1.094%, whereas the ore with particle size of -80-100 shows the highest nickel content with the value of 1.177%.
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Supriyatna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 13 (2019) 127–131
Overall, the nickel content in all ore particle sizes is not significantly different. Effect of ore particel size toward nickel content on the ore is shown in Fig. 2. 1.4 1.3 1.1765
%Ni
1.2
1.133
1.1235
1.094
1.1065
1.1 1 0.9 0.8 #80
-80 #100 -100 #150 -150 #200 Ore Particle Size (Mesh)
-200
Fig. 2. Effect of ore particle size toward nickel content on the ore
X-ray diffraction (XRD) wasused to identify the mineral phases of the raw ore samples. Identification of compounds on nickel laterite ore sample test was done with a 2θ position from 10o to 80o and uses a CuKa wavelength of 1.54056 Å. The nickel laterite ore tested with XRD has been sieved first up to -200 meshes. The XRD test resulted in the peak of the compound. As shown in Fig. 3. it can be seen the phases that exist in nickel laterite ore. From the peak analysis, the most dominant phase in lateritic nickel ore is goethite ((Fe, Ni, Al) O (OH)). There is also a quartz phase (SiO2), maghemite (ɣ-Fe2O3), taenite (ɣ-FeNi) and talc {Mg3Si4O10 (OH)2}.
Fig. 3. XRD pattern of raw nickel laterite ore Table.3. The results of the experiment with a variation of the composition of palm kernel shell charcoal No
Time of smelting (minute)
Nickel laterite (gr)
PKSC (gr)
Limestone (gr)
NPI (gr)
Slag (gr)
% Ni in NPI
% Fe in NPI
Ni Extraction (%)
1 2 3
90 90 90
9.700 9.700 9.700
1.000 1.500 2.000
800 800 800
1.650 2.500 3.300
5.300 4.950 2.550
3,42 3,70 3,09
87,80 90,00 90,07
49,45 81,05 89,35
Supriyatna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 13 (2019) 127–131
131
Smelting process was done with the variation of the composition of palm kernel shell charcoal as a reluctant. Temperature measurements are made using an infrared thermometer prior to the smelting process of the metal and slag. The weight of metal products and slag was shown in Table 3. From the results shown in Table 3., it can be seen that 2000 g of palm kernel shell charcoal is the optimum condition to produced nickel laterite ore based on the presentation of Ni extraction. Further it shows that at 1000 g the reduction process is not maximal because the supply of carbon is not enough to reduce the ore into metal. 4. Conclusion Ore particle size affects the nickel content from the raw nickel laterite ore. The highest nickel content was resulted from the ore particle size of -80#100 meshes, whereas the ore particle size that has the lowest nickel content is #80 meshes. These results suggest that smoothing process of nickel laterite ore using ball millis needed to make the effective way during the processing nickel laterite ore into metals. Results from the preliminary study of smelting of Indonesian laterite nickel ore using PKSC as reducing agent show that the best Ni extraction is 89.35% with 2.000 g PKSC. Acknowledgment The authors gratefully acknowledge a Research Unit for Mineral Technology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) for financial and other support for this research. References [1] [2] [3] [4]
G. Pyle, P.Couture, Homeostasis and Toxiology of Esential Metals, Elsevier Inc,2011, pp.253-289. J. Kim, G. Dodbiba, H. Tanno, K. Okaya, S. Matsuo, T. Fujita, Miner. Eng. 23 (2010) 282-288. R.R Moskalyk, A.M. Alfantazi, Miner. Eng. 15 ( 2002)593-605. Y.J. Li, Y.S. Sun, Y.X Han, P.Gao, Coal Based Reduction Mechanism of Low Grade Laterite Ore, T. Nonferr. Metal. Soc. 23 (2013) 34283433. [5] A.Oxley, N.Barcza, Miner. Eng. (2013). [6] Kyle, Nickel Laterite Processing Technologies - Where to Next. Murdoch University Repository, 2010. [7] A.Warner, J. Metall (2006) 11-20. [8] S. R. Saleh, Nickel Processing and Refining Technology, Jakarta: Research and Development Center for Mineral and Coal Technology, 2013. [9] B.Li, H.Wang, Y.Wei, The Reduction of Nickel from Low-Grade Nickel Laterite Ore using A Solid State Deoxidisation Method, J. Miner. Eng. 24 (2011)1556-1562. [10] M. Zhang, Y.C Yuan, Y.Z. Liu, J. Energ Res. 21 (2005) 15-19.