Vale Clydach Refinery

Vale site visit

presentation

Value

"Act with integrity, Make it happen, Life matters most, Respect our planet and communities, Value the people who build our company"

Vale

timeline

CNR - The Mond

1902

Mond accidentally created a nickel carbonyl and since then the process has been the same for 120 years

The difference between the process now and then is how advanced the technology has become and the many challenging criterias set.

+ info

Now

MAP

associated with CNR

CNR

Mines, Distributors and Refinery

Vale

31000

280+

20%

Tonnes

Customers

Worldwide nickel production

91 % customer satisfaction 8.55 global satisfaction

17% of Europe Number 2 in nickel production worldwide

More than two -third of nickel turned into stainless steel

process

4 key steps

pellet and powder plant

Gas purification and seperation

Kiln

Storage

Gas seperation and purification

• absorption of gasses using liquids
• each liquid absorbs a certain gas from the Grade B Syngas
• liquid containing each gas are separated in different columns
• Each column undergoes a reaction to produce pure CO, CO2
• transferred to storage

• "Grade C Syngas – raw Syngas that comes from the gasifier that contains approximately 30% hydrogen and carbon monoxide combined, 30% carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen.

• Grade B Syngas – is the Syngas that has undergone some polishing to remove hydrocarbons and has been reformed increasing the combined amount of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to around 70% with carbon dioxide and nitrogen making up the rest.

• Grade A Syngas – is further processing of the Grade B gas to increase the purity of the hydrogen to >98.0%"

Kiln

2 KilnsreductionSO2 catalyst CO additionoxidation of waste metals

Reduction

• Reduction equation

NiO + H2 Ni+ impurities + water

• spins to ensure all the nickel is oxidized.

• takes around two weeks

• oxidation of waste metals
• To insure metals are stable when returning to Canada. For safety and environmental reasons

metal + oxygen MO

• CO addition
• New CO added
• Some CO recycled from pellet and powder plant

Ni + 4CO Ni(CO)4

SO2 catalyst

• Sticks into "spiky" nickel particles

Main Nickel products

Nickel pellets

flat pellets

• Turbine plate
• industrial vessel and pipework
• coinage

• Fun fact: Same as nickel pellets but some companies don't like it when they

T255 - filamentary powder

T123 - Discrete spherical powder

comparison

Vale Process: Nickel carbonyl is produced through the reaction of nickel metal with carbon monoxide gas. This forms a volatile nickel carbonyl gas, which is then thermally decomposed to yield pure nickel metal. Purity: The nickel obtained through this process has 99.9% purity, comparable to electrode purification. Energy Consumption: The nickel carbonyl process is generally considered to be energy-efficient compared to some other refining methods.

Nickelberg Process: Nickel is refined through electrolysis. partially purified nickel ore is dissolved in a solution, and the nickel ions are then reduced and deposited onto a cathode. Purity: This method produces a 99.9% purity. Energy Consumption: Electrolysis requires alot of energy, making this method relatively energy-intensive.

Health and Safety inside refinery

Thanks!

Refrences

Vale.com gov.uk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao1tvps_-ZQ