Mining and Metal Processing

Steel Production

Direct Steam Injection Solutions for Tank heating, Brackish Water and Mineral Leach Slurry Heating

ProSonix Direct Steam Injection Heating for alumina slurry, bauxite slurry, bitumen froth treatment, brackish water, mineral leach slurry heating, feedwater heater, evaporative flash recovery, jet sparger, naphtha, oil sands, slurry heating, Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), tailings transport, tank heating, steam injection valves and water heating applications.

Slurry Heating

ProSonix direct steam injection heating can be used for a variety of difficult to handle mineral slurries such Alumina slurry, Brackish water, Bauxite slurry, Oil sands processing, Bitumen processing and leaching. The PSX heater is available in a variety of alloys to address corrosion issues and hardened wear resistant coatings can be applied to address erosion.

Energy Savings – Vent & Waste Steam Recovery

ProSonix J-Series Jet Sparger can be used to capture vent or waste steam that is typically released to atmosphere and inject back into process water system or water tanks for energy savings.

Evaporative Flash Recovery

The ProSonix steam injection heater’s ability to deliver instant, single pass heat up allows for recovery of costly solvents and naphtha from mine slurries, sour water, bitumen froth treatment and other slurry heating applications. Direct steam injection heating allows for flash recovery and separation in Oil sands and Tar sands processing.

Boiler Feedwater Heater

Direct steam injection heating for boiler feedwater can reduce energy costs and improve the thermal efficiency of the boiler. The PSX heater eliminates mineral and scale build-up and pugging/fouling associated with conventional feedwater heaters.

Lime Slaker Heating

A number of industries use hydrated lime addition for their processes. Hydrated lime (or calcium hydroxide, or slaked lime) is usually a dry powder resulting from the controlled slaking of quicklime with water. The exothermic or released heat of reaction is captured and used to evaporate the excess slaking water. High calcium quicklime readily reacts with water to form hydrated lime.

Aggressive Fluid Heating

Heating water and challenging fluids such as alumina slurry, bauxite slurry, brackish water and abrasive slurry such as oil sands/bitumen froth and tailings transport presents unique challenges for traditional heating methods. SAGD applications require large volumes of continuous heating for long periods of times. The ProSonix I-Series Inline heater can address scale and mineral build-up issues and is designed for demanding continuous process heating applications.

Brackish Water Heating

The ProSonix Steam Injection heater is well suited for brackish water and other fluids with high dissolved mineral content. The unique inline heater design has a very low pressure drop, typically 1-2 psig, minimising flow disruptions which lead to precipitate falling out. The radial multi-port steam jet diffuser operates under sonic velocity steam injection which produces a self cleaning action. With no hot surfaces and velocity steam flow, mineral and scale build-up issues are eliminated.

Avoiding Transport Line Freeze-up

The ProSonix J-Series Jet Sparger is an economical way of adding heat to tailings transport and slurry lines to avoid freeze problems during colder winter months and during shut down or maintenance periods. The J-Series Jet Sparger can be installed on large diameter pipes (>18″) without expensive reconfiguration of piping and steam lines.

Water Heating

ProSonix direct steam injection heating is a good choice for a variety of water heating applications because the PSX heater has a high turndown on both steam and liquid. In applications such as SAGD, large volumes of water are required at high temperatures. ProSonix direct steam injection heaters are available in a variety of designs to address most needs.

Jet Sparger Optimisation for Tank Heating

Tank heating with spargers or eductors can lead to steam hammer problems which can damage tank walls and welds. Proper tank heating with a Jet Sparger utilises high velocity steam for rapid mixing and condensation of the steam. The ProSonix J-Series Jet Sparger is well suited for a variety of tank heating needs.

Mineral Leach Slurry Heating

Inline process heating with Direct Steam Injection has multiple applications in a variety of process and utility applications. Many applications such as mineral processing, pulp and fiber slurry pre-treatment, oil sands mining and others are not well suited for traditional methods of heating. Typical challenges encountered are corrosive fluids, abrasive particulate, viscosity changes, plugging and fouling, eating for water, slurry, sludge, and aggressive fluid heating applications. Direct Steam Injection for Inline Heating is a very good choice for a variety of applications. One of the fundamental principals for efficient and reliable steam injection is the ability to produce and deliver high velocity steam. High velocity steam is what assures rapid and complete condensation and mixing of the steam in the fluid.

Internally Modulated Steam Control – ProSonix’s unique method of steam injection utilises an internal steam control to precisely deliver the appropriate mass flow of steam, and not the pressure, for the required heating. This is achieved via and integral Pneumatic Actuator and a variable position stem plug in the steam jet diffuser. The product does not throttle or regulate steam pressure. This design offers a precise method of steam control through a choked flow control delivery of the steam. Choked flow is the phenomenon of accelerating a vapor to maximum velocity by creating a pressure differential through an engineered nozzle. By establishing choked flow, the steam mass flow can be metered to precisely control the heating of the liquid. This produces predictable results based on position of the stem plug. Through a variable area steam diffuser, steam flow is metered at the point where steam and liquid first contact and mix. Internally modulated DSI heating controls the mass flow of the steam and not the pressure.

Advantages with Multi-Stage DSI Heating

• It eliminates process upsets. Some fluids and slurries are not receptive to large volumes of steam addition because of their hi-viscosity/hi-solids. Splitting the heating load can result in improved steam condensation eliminating steam hammer (cavitation) and excessive wear
• The PSX Inline Heater can be designed to match your slurry design flow velocities eliminating flow disruptions, accelerated flow velocity areas and maintaining solids in suspension
• Rapid and complete condensation of the steam allows for more reliable temperature control of up to +/- 1°F (-17°C)
• High velocity steam is self cleaning and eliminates issues associated with plugging and fouling along with scale and mineral build-up
• Lower maintenance costs as proper condensation of the steam eliminates excessive wear, thus improving equipment reliability and life
• Typically 1-2 psig reduces slurry pump demand which reduces energy consumption

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Oil Sands Processing

Oil sands processing in Northern Canada utilises a variety of solvents and naphtha to assist in the separation of the Bitumen from the water and sand. These fluids can help promote chemical reactions, accelerate processing time and reduce processing costs. Many of these
must be recovered due to their high costs, importance of water recovery or issues associated with release of the chemicals to the environment.

Issues Associated with Oil Sands Processing

• The sand that is separated is very abrasive and can cause excessive wear. Devices that accelerate flow or cause impingement will wear very rapidly
• Bitumen and froth are not well suited for heating in traditional heating devices due to issues with pressure drop, abrasion and plugging/fouling
• Solvents sometimes require high temperatures for processing yet can be very unstable and flash in the pipe if temperatures are not controlled properly

PSX Heater Solution

The PSX heater can be installed to heat up the process fluid prior to the flash vessel or recovery tank. It has a high heating capacity and can achieve up to a 250°F (121°C) temperature rise in a single pass. For difficult to pump slurries or unstable solvents, the PSX heater can be arranged in a multi-stage configuration to stage the heating to optimise the process. The key to efficient, safe and predictable steam injection is to inject steam at sonic velocity to achieve choked flow. By achieving choked flow, sonic velocity conditions can be achieved for steam injection. All steam injectors need to operate in a choked flow manner for good, non-violent mixing. The PSX heater is an internally modulated heater that varies the mass flow rate of steam by changing the area in which the steam may pass. This type of modulation allows the full steam pressure to always be present at the point of injection regardless of plug position. Flow rates can range from 1 – 10,000 gpm.

Key PSX Heater Direct Steam Injection Benefits

• Eliminate process upsets as the internal steam control design of the PSX heater controls the steam mass flow and not the steam pressure thus eliminating steam hammer and vibration issues
• Lower maintenance due to the PSX heater’s self cleaning design (no scaling or plugging/fouling)
• Low pressure drop (typically 1-2 psig) reduce pump integration issues and flow disruptions, and provides energy savings by lowering slurry pump demand
• Improved temperature control, typically +/- 1°F (-17°C), allows for a more reliable heating process
• Improved reliability as a variety of alloys and wear coatings are available to address wear issues

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