Modeling and Optimization of Charge Materials Ranges in Converter Furnace with Enhanced Passivation Time in Copper Electrorefining Process: A Mixture Design Approach

In this study, the design of experiments is used to study and model the time of passivation in copper electrorefining as a function of the charge of melting furnace through the preparation of copper casting anodes. as a result of optimization for the proposed optimized anodes, the charge percent values of concentrate (co), refinery scrap (rs), and non-refinery scrap (nrs) were proposed equals to 69.1, 0.574 and 30.32 (wt.%), respectively. experimental data confirmed the enhanced passivation time of the proposed anode was 6520 s. also, it was observed that the molar ratio of as/(bi+sb) and ag/(se+te) are the key factors in passivation time. finally, the relation of passivation time (seconds) with the charge of melting furnace is proposed as : t (s)= - 3728.98 × co + 4640.00 × rs + 3141.00 × nrs + 17763.27 × co × rs + 25547.65 × co × nrs - 1758.00 × rs × nrs. moreover, adding of as ingot in casting anodes as a dose dependent of non-refinery scrap portion in the input charge of the melting unit can effectively prolong the time of passivation.