This paper describes the piloting process that was behind Australian Magnesium Corporation Limited decision to build a 97 000 t per annum magnesium smelter near Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia in 2001.Before the engineering design for this smelter, Australian Magnesium Corporation Ltd had completed an extensive piloting program. This involved a batch minipilot plant in 1993 which was followed by a continuous minipilot plant which operated for eight months in 1994. Finally, a 1500 t per annum demonstration plant was built and operated at Gladstone in Queensland between 1998 and 2002. The minipilot plants assessed the stability of the chemicals used in the process, the solvent losses, the crystallisation yields and also tested the viability of operations previously only tested on a laboratory scale. The demonstration plant was designed to evaluate the complete integration of the process, assess the effectiveness of the selected industrial scale equipment and materials of construction while providing information for a bankable feasibility study.
The solubility of ammonia (NH3) and ammonium
chloride
(NH4Cl) in the systems NH3–CH3OH, NH3–C2H6O2, NH4Cl–CH3OH, NH4Cl–C2H6O2, NH3–NH4Cl–CH3OH, NH3–NH4Cl–C2H6O2, and NH3–NH4Cl–C2H6O2 + 8 % CH3OH are reported for temperature conditions relevant to the
crystallization of pure magnesium chloride hexammoniate (MgCl2·6NH3) within the Australian Magnesium (AM)
process. The solubility of NH3 in anhydrous methanol and
ethylene glycol decreased within the temperature range 298 K to 333
K. The solubility of NH4Cl in methanol increased from 3.3
% at 298 K to 3.7 % at 313 K, and in ethylene glycol the NH4Cl solubility increased approximately linearly with temperature between
313 K and 353 K extending from 9.7 % to 11.9 %, respectively. The
solubility of NH4Cl in saturated ammoniated methanol at
298 K was 7.9 % with a corresponding NH3 content of 15.0
%. At 313 K it was 5.5 %, while the NH3 content was approximately
9 %. The solubility of NH4Cl in saturated ammoniated ethylene
glycol at 313 K, 323 K, and 333 K was 11.0 %, 11.7 %, and 13.2 %,
respectively. The results for the systems NH3–NH4Cl in C2H6O2 and CH3OH indicate that minor amounts of NH4Cl, formed during
MgCl2·6NH3 crystallization, will dissolve
in ammoniated ethylene glycol and ammoniated methanol and ensure an
NH4Cl-free hexammoniate product.
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