Abstract
Water-quenched samples were collected from the reaction shaft of a pilot scale flash furnace, in which copper concentrate was processed together with silicious sand. The samples were subjected to size distribution measurements and chemical analyses. Based on the results, the following conclusions have been obtained:
(1) The sampling method used in this study can collect not only coarse particles but fine ones equally.
(2) The desulfurization reaction of copper concentrate is not completed in the reaction shaft, but proceeds even in the settler to some extent.
(3) A copper concentrate particle impinges on other particles about 40 times while falling down 4m from the shaft roof to the bath, and its final diameter becomes more than 250μm or 5 times as large as the original diameter.
(4) Such increase in particle diameter is not brought about by the agglomeration of the particles during feeding nor difference in terminal velocity of the particles, but by turbulence in the reaction shaft.
