High Temperature Refining
High Temperature Refining spans a wide range of extreme temperatures that extends from
above 2,000 degrees centigrade all the way down to below minus 200 degrees centigrade on the cold side.
Thermal refining processes are only one of the methods used to segregate and purify solid, liquid and gaseous product outputs.
The long standing practice of thermal smelting or refining of metals,
commonly referred to as Pyrometallurgy and is the generally accepted method of purification of both primary and secondary metals.
Selective melting to segregate different materials with different melting points is also a common methodology
referred to as the sweat process.
Typically the molten fraction is the targeted element and
the unmelted fraction contains the
residual materials
that are collected for further processing.
Once the mid range and lower temperature elements have been removed from the feed stock
the efficient smelting and thermal refining may occur.
The lower temp fraction typically contains the organic and the bulk of the volatile materials
can be effectively removed by a
Bio-Refining
process.
Recovered materials may be further upgraded using additional
Recovery Methods.
Ultra High-Temp Recovery
Ultra High-Temp Refining using methods such as
lasar
vaporization and selective re-condensing or solidification
may be applied in specific circumstances.
These methods may be limited to extreme cases where it is vital to maintain a critical environmental equilibrium or
for the extraction, recovery and isolation of special elements.
The economics of Ultra High-Temp Recovery may directly be equivalent to the extreme process and procedures.
Plasma Arc Energy
Electric Arc plasma is an energized ionized gas that generates extream heat and light and is commonly used in devices
such as Electric Arc Furnace, Plasma Torch, Plasma Arc generators.
The
Rapid Energy Release
contained in a plasma arc also emits sound or pressure waves.
Plasma Arc Furnaces are commonly used in metal melting and smelting applications and mineral refining operations
where high heat is requiried.
The
Plasma Arc Energy Forum
was established as a vehicle to exchange information and share ideas in hopes of advancing the technology and its adoption.
Please feel free to submit your
Buy or Sell inquiries
for Electric Arc & Plasma Energy items.
In addition to
harnessing
the plasma heat, there exists an opportunity to harvest the radiating light energy through the use of
Thermal Photovoltaic
systems or traditional
PV
cells. The
noise
generated from a plasma arc generator is also a source of scavanged energy.
Inert Mineral Recovery
The Recovery of Inert Minerals includes a broad spectrum of ceramics, refractory material,
hi-temp catalysts and glass.
The separation of metals from high temperature ceramics and catalysis materials has been proven effective
with the use of a plasma arc furnace.
Most
glass
material can be mechanically recovered to produce a furnace ready commodity
that may be directly consumed in the manufacturing stream.
The recovery of glass with thermal methods may not be economically efficient but proves to be an effective method of
aggregating harder to handle wastes such as glass fibers and composite materials.
Mineral Salts & Residues
Refined Commodity Markets
Once materials have been refined into a high grade commodity they can be introduced into
the established traditional commodity market chain.
High Temperature Refining will be impacted by two main factors,
the economics and availability of clean efficient cost effective energy and
the control and management of environmental emissions.
Selective Melt Segragation
Understanding the melting and vaperization tempratures of elements accross the periodic table,
High Temperature Refining may selectivly segragate certain materials based on their melting tempratue.
For many years the traditional scrap metal industry has utalized a sweat furnce method to seperate metals
with low melting tempratures from those materials with higher melting temprates.
sweat furnce melting is common for recovery of materials such as
Aluminum
and
Zinc
Traditional
Blast Furnce
technologies melt and seperate heaver metals from lighter mineral slag materials,
The slag materials solidify into an inert Vitrification form of a glass like solid.
The selective melting an segragation of of a wide range of metals and inert minerals and ceramics is a
desireable method of High Temperature Refining.
The development of reverse sweating processes may provide persice efficent recovery.
Fractional Distillation
The use of Fractional Distillation and Fractional Condensation are methods that span a wide range of
refined product outputs.
The segregation of materials into different fractions based on the selective evaporation or condensing points
is a common refining technique.
Fractional Distillation is most commonly associated with the refining of hydrocarbons, petrochemicals and oils.
The production of
industrial gases
have traditionally also been largely based on Fractional separation methods.
n addition to Fractional Recovery systems, taking advantage of the natural
Expansion & Compression
effects of different energy transfer
fluids
optimize energy efficiency.
