Flue Dust Reactions and Sticking Mechanisms in a Copper Flash Smelting Furnace Waste Heat Boiler: A Sampling Study

Abstract The formation of accretion layers within the waste heat boiler is a serious operational concern as it can potentially increase boiler downtime and, hence, limit continuous production. In previous Computational Fluid Dynamics studies, the accretion formation was predicted for an industrial-scale waste heat boiler, using a dust stickiness sub-routine of the model. In this study, a dust sampling campaign was used to validate this stickiness sub-routine. Furthermore, various sticking and reaction mechanisms of flue dust were investigated and compared to thermodynamic predictions. While the results suggest that the sub-routine is valid, the comparison of thermodynamics and species in the samples showed that the chemical reactions of the flue dust did not reach the thermodynamic equilibrium. Graphical Abstract