Two-Phase Flow Modeling of Copper Electrorefining Involving Impurity Particles

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2017. Impurity particles (slime particles) play a vital role in copper electrorefining, as they are a major source of cathodic contamination. Their behavior and transport in electrorefining cells are largely affected by electrolyte flows. Therefore, it is significant to study the fluid flowfield in copper electrorefining with the consideration of impurity particles.Atwo-phase flowmodel of copper electrorefining was developed with one liquid phase of electrolyte and one dispersed phase of impurity particles. Copper electrorefining in a lab-scale cell was then simulated for two different impurity particle releasing scenarios. With impurity particle released only from the inlet, dispersed phase particles can be transported to the inter-electrode domain by electrolyte inflows through its sides rather than its bottom. Thus, the side parts of the cathode encounter more impurity particles than the center part in this scenario. With impurity particles released from both the inlet and the anode, dispersed phase particles fill up the electrorefining cell much faster, and the cathode is exposed to significant volume fractions of the dispersed phase much earlier. A large amount of impurity particles from the anode are settled on the cell bottom. The dispersed phase particles are distributed almost uniformly in front of the cathode after initial stages.