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A REPORT ON THE TOUR TO PCSIR (Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) By MUHAMMAD ZUBAIR IDREES
Institute of Geology, University of the Punjab, Lahore
ABSTRACT:
The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) was established in 1953. The prime objective of setting up research establishments in various parts of the country for undertaking scientific research for the utilization of the indigenous raw materials and also on problems faced by the country's nascent industries. The present complexion of the PCSIR is that it has been reorganized as an Autonomous Body under Act No. XXX of 1973 with greater emphasis on industrial research oriented to the solution of important national problems.
INTRODUCTION:
We arrange a one day tour to Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR). We reached PCSIR on 10:00 a.m., 13 Jan. 2011. We visted two main sections of PCSIR under the supervision of our teacher Sir. Syed Mehmood Ali Shah. The first department we visited is Mineral Processing Research Centre (MPRC) and the Second is Pakistan Institute of Technology for Minerals and Advanced Engineering Materials (PITMAEM). The PCSIR autonomy is functional within the framework of two constitutional bodies created under the Act of 1973. Council, the policy making body, is headed by the Chairman of PCSIR and the remaining membership thereto includes three members of PCSIR (Science, Technology, Finance), four representatives of Federal Ministers (S & T, Industries, Production), four Directors of Industries (one from each province), three commerce Directors of PCSIR establishments, and six representatives of industries. Governing Body, the executive arm, is headed by the Chairman of PCSIR and includes two Members (Science, Technology), one Member Finance (representative of Ministry of Finance), and Secretary of PCSIR (ex-officio). PCSIR has laboratory establishments in the federal and all the four provincial capitals These are organized into four multifunctional research laboratories in Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Lahore by far the larger and therefore set-up in the structures of laboratories complexes.
____________________________________________________________________Report On PCSIR A wide range of S & T disciplines are organized into quasi-independent Centres / Divisions such as applied chemistry, minerals & metallurgy, glass & ceramics, biotechnology & food, environmental protection, medicinal botanics, fine chemicals & pharmaceuticals, rural technologies, instrumentation & electronics, research industrialization, polymers & plastics, and marine & applied biology. The monofunctional units include National Physical & Standards Laboratories at Islamabad. Fuel Research Centre at Karachi, Leather Research Centre at Karachi, Solar Energy Research Centre at Hyderabad, and Food Processing- cum - Demonstration Unit at Skardu. There also is a Scientific Information Centre at Karachi which in addition to miscellaneous information related matters puts out, now in its 49th-5 volume of publication, the Pakistan Journal of Scientific & Industrial research publishing articles from national and international contributors after peer review. Trained manpower needs of the industrial sector are met through two Centres in Karachi and Quetta, namely, Pak-Swiss Technical Centre for middle-level technicians, and the national Institute of Industrial Electronics & Engineering producing high quality graduates.
Objectives of PCSIR:
Optimum utilization of indigenous raw material resources for the development of industrial processes. Development of technologies around local resources from bench to pilot plant stages, and leasing them out for industrial exploitation leading to import substitution and export enhancement. To conduct R&D work on problems faced by the industrial sector and maintain linkages through seminars, workshops, publications, and provision of assistance to academic institutions. To undertake cooperative research with local and foreign R&D organizations and commerceindustrial outfits on projects of national interest. Human resource development through organized training courses and diffusive on job grooming of manpower for industry and research centers to broaden the science & technology base in the country.
Activities of PCSIR:
The broad-based activities of the PCSIR encompass almost the entire industrial sector in the country; for the industrial units in operation have their ground-work in science and technology in which the PCSIR is both prominent and all too visible an organization on the national plan. The PCSIR being the foremost industrial R & D organization is the largest producer of indigenous technologies in an organized fashion. The R & D projects of the PCSIR fall into two major categories: Those that are sponsored or are user liked. Those for which a user is likely to be available but has to be found out.
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____________________________________________________________________Report On PCSIR industry in acquisition, modification of existing plants, handling of hazardous wastes, treatment of effluents, control of emissions, etc. for environmentally clean and safe productions. PCSIR laboratories have already been recommended by the EPA as environmental laboratories to carry out testing of environment samples. PCSIR scientists/technologists are helping Ministry of Environment to prepare, organize and execute training programmes in the field of environment monitoring and assessment.
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2- Mineral and Material Research Centre (MMRC) 3- Biotechnology and Food Research Centre (BFRC) 4- Glass and Ceramics Research Centre (G&CRC) 5- Leather Research Centre (LRC) 6- Applied Physics, Computer and Instrumentation Centre (APC&I) 7- Centre for Development of Laboratory Equipment (CDLE) 8- General Services Division (GSD)
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Brief Description:
The Centre is engaged in R&D activities in areas related to mineralogy and geochemistry, mineral processing pyro-metallurgy, electro-metallurgy, physical metallurgy, cast metals technology, chemical evaluation, corrosion protection, product development, technological promotion and industrial relations, Modern research facilities are available in the fields mentioned above. The Centre is divided into five sections to carry out research and development work in the specialized research areas. The details of Sections research and development work in specialized research areas are as follows.
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X-Ray Laboratory:
The X-Ray Laboratory is equipped with XRF and XRD which are being used for materials identification and qualitative and quantitative analyses of metals, alloys, ores and minerals.
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Mission of PITMAEM:
To conduct fundamental and applied research in the field of materials science and engineering. To develop the new materials. To improve the performance of traditional engineering materials. To promote high quality scientific and engineering research, identifying the nation's need and help in its progress. To enhance interdisciplinary research and international collaboration.
Consultancy Services:
A committment to investment in the latest technology ensures that the lab can provide cost effective and flexible service. Over the year we had developed the capabilities to offer complete know-how in the country and are committed to provide our customers with the best possible vices.
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Consultancy services are also available for all the materials related failure analysis, trouble shooting, product developments, investigations, registrations and auditing of materials & processing standards.
Major Facilities:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Centre of Excellence in Industrial Coatings Foundry Technology Centre Nano Coatings and Powders Industrial/ Advanced Composites Manufacturing Facilities Heat Treatment and Rolling Facilities Labs facilities of Powder Metallurgy Labs facilities of Non Destructive Testing Labs facilities for Assaying and Hallmarking of Jewellery and Gem Testing
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specimen surface. An oscilloscope display with a time base shows the time it takes for an ultrasonic pulse to travel to a reflector (a flaw, the back surface or other free surface) in terms of distance traveled across the oscilloscope screen. The height of the reflected pulse is related to the flaw size as seen from the transmitter probe. The relationship of flaw size, distance and reflectivity are complex, and a considerable skill is required to interpret the display. Complex mutiprobe systems are also used with mechanical probe movement and digitization of signals, followed by computer interpretation are developing rapidly. Ultrasonic examinations are performed for the detection and sizing of internal defects, flaws or discontinuities in piping, castings, forgings, weldments or other components. Exact sizing techniques have been developed to detect and monitor progressive cracking in a variety of equipment.
Portable Hardness:
Per ASTM E110, this testing is normally used for on-site applications or on very large samples. The TCR portable hardness unit performs the hardness testing by applying a 5 kg. Vickers load indenter and electronically converts the values in the preferred scale.
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6. Analytical Lab:
This lab is focus on thermal research and the following appratus are used here;
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Thermalgravimeter Analysis:
Thermogravimetric analysis or thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) is a type of testing performed on samples that determines changes in weight in relation to change in temperature. Such analysis relies on a high degree of precision in three measurements: weight, temperature, and temperature change. As many weight loss curves look similar, the weight loss curve may require transformation before results may be interpreted. A derivative weight loss curve can identify the point where weight loss is most apparent. Again, interpretation is limited without further modifications and deconvolution of the overlapping peaks may be required.
Dilatometer:
A dilatometer is a scientific instrument that measures volume changes caused by a physical or chemical process. A familiar application of a dilatometer is the mercury-in-glass thermometer, in which the change in volume of the liquid column is read from a graduated scale. Because mercury has a fairly constant rate of expansion over normal temperature ranges, the volume changes are directly related to temperature.
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The analysis of major and trace elements in geological materials by x-ray fluorescence is made possible by the behavior of atoms when they interact with radiation. When materials are excited with high-energy, short wavelength radiation (e.g., X-rays), they can become ionized. If the energy of the radiation is sufficient to dislodge a tightly-held inner electron, the atom becomes unstable and an outer electron replaces the missing inner electron. When this happens, energy is released due to the decreased binding energy of the inner electron orbital compared with an outer one. The emitted radiation is of lower energy than the primary incident X-rays and is termed fluorescent radiation. Because the energy of the emitted photon is characteristic of a transition between specific electron orbitals in a particular element, the resulting fluorescent X-rays can be used to detect the abundances of elements that are present in the sample.
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Mineral Processing:
In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing, also known as mineral dressing or ore dressing, is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores.
Unit Operation:
Mineral processing can involve four general types of unit operation: 1. Comminution particle size reduction; 2. Sizing separation of particle sizes by screening or classification; 3. Concentration by taking advantage of physical and surface chemical properties 4. Dewatering solid/liquid separation. In all of these processes, the most important considerations are the economics of the processes and this is dictated by the grade and recovery of the final product. To do this, the mineralogy of the ore
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____________________________________________________________________Report On PCSIR needs to be considered as this dictates the amount of liberation required and the processes that can occur. The smaller the particles processes, the greater the theortical grade and recovery of the final product, but this however is diffucult to do with fine particles as they prevent certain concentration processes from occurring.
1. Comminution:
Comminution is particle size reduction of materials. Comminution may be carried out on either dry materials or slurries. Crushing and grindingare the two primary comminution processes. Crushing is normally carried out on "run-of-mine"[2] ore, while grinding (normally carried out after crushing) may be conducted on dry or slurried material.
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2. Sizing:
Sizing is the general term for separation of particles according to their size. The simplest sizing process is screening, or passing the particles to be sized through a screen or number of screens. Screening equipment can include grizzlies, bar screens,wedge wire screens,banna screens, multi deck screens, vibratory screed, fine screens, flip flop screens and wire mesh screens. Screens can be static (typically the case for very coarse material), or they can incorporate mechanisms 23
____________________________________________________________________Report On PCSIR to shake or vibrate the screen. Some considerations in this process includes the screen material, the aperature size, shape and oreintation, the amount of near sized particles, the addition of water, the amplitude and frequency of the virbations, the angle of inclination, the presence of harmful materials, like steel and wood, and the size distribtuion of the particles. Classification refers to sizing operations that exploit the differences in settling velocities exhibited by particles of different size. Classification equipment may include ore sorters, gas cyclones, hydrocyclones, rotating trommels, rake classifiers or fluidized classifiers. An important factor in both comminution and sizing operations is the determination of the particle size distribution of the materials being processed, commonly referred to as particle size analysis. Many techniques for analyzing particle size are used, and the techniques include both off-line analyses which require that a sample of the material be taken for analysis and on-line techniques that allow for analysis of the material as it flows through the process.
3. Concentration:
There are a number of ways to increase the concentration of the wanted minerals: in any particular case the method chosen will depend on the relative physical and surface chemical properties of the mineral and the gangue.
Gravity concentration
Historically the earliest method used, particles can be classified based on their specific gravity.Air is the main fluid medium used for the process. Gravity concentration processes include:
Heavy media or dense media separation (these include, baths, drums, larcodems, dyana whirlpool
bed.
Multi gravity separators (Falcon, Knelson, Mozley and the Kelsey Jig) Inline pressure Jigs Reichert Cones
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These processes can be classified as either dense medium separation or gravity separation. The difference between the two that gravity separation does not use a dense medium to operate, only water or air. Dense medium separation can be performed with a variety of mediums. These include, organic liquids, aqueous solutions, suspensions in water and suspensions in air. Of these, most industrial processes use suspensions in water. THe organic liquids are not used due to their toxicity and difficulties in handling. The aqueous solution as a dense medium is used in coal processing in the form of a belknap wash and the suspension in air is used in water-deficient areas, like china, where sand is used to separate coal from the gangue minerals. The dense medium separation is also classified as absolute gravity separation as the sinks and the floats travel in different directions. The gravity separation is also called relative gravity separation as they separate particles due to their differences in the magnitude of the particle response to a driving force. These processes can also be classified into multi-G and single G processes. The difference is the magnitude of the driving force for the separation. Multi-G processes allow the separation of fine particles to occur and these particles can be in the range of 10 to 50 micron. The single G process are only capable of processing particles that are greater than 80 micron. Of the gravity separation processes, the spiral concentrators are one of the most economical due to their simplicity and use of space. They operate by flowing film separation and can either use washwater or be washwater-less. The washwater spirals separate particles more easily but can have issues with entrainment of gangue with the concentrate produced.
Froth flotation:
Froth flotation is an important concentration process. This process can be used to separate any two different particles and operated by the surface chemistry of the particles. In flotation, bubbles are introduced into a pulp and the bubbles rise through the pulp. In the process, hydrophobic particles become bound to the surface of the bubbles. The driving force for this attachment is the change in the surface free energy when the attachment occurs. These bubbles rise through the slurry and are collected from the surface. To enable these particles to attach, careful consideration of the chemistry of the pulp needs to be made. These considerations include the pH, Eh and the presence of flotation reagents. The pH is important as it changes the charge of the particles surface and the Eh effects the chemisorption of collectors on the surface of the particles. The addition of flotation reagents also effects the operation of these processes. The most important chemical that is added is the collector, This chemical binds to the surface of the particles as it is a surfactant. The main considerations in this chemical is the nature of the head group and the size of the
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hydrocarbon chain. The hydrocarbon tail needs to be short to maximize the selectivity of the desired mineral and the headgroup dictates which minerals it attaches to. The frothers are another important chemical addition to the pulp at it enables stable bubbles to be formed. This is important as if the bubble coalesce, minerals fall off their surface. The bubbles however should not be too stable as this prevents easy transportation and dewatering of the concentrate formed. The mechanism of these frothers is not completely known and further research into their mechanisms is being performed. Depressants and activators are used to selectively separate one mineral from another. Depressants inhibit the flotation of one mineral or minerals while activators enable the flotation of others. Examples of these include CN -, used to depress all sulfides but galena and this depressant is believed to operate by changing the solubility of chemisorbed and physisorbed collectors on sulfides. This theory originates from Russia. An example of an activator is Cu 2+ ions, used for the flotation of sphalerite. There are a number of cells able to be used for the flotation of minerals. these include flotation columns and mechanical flotation cells. The flotation columns are used for finer minerals and they typically have a higher grade and lower recovery of minerals than mechanical flotation cells. The cells in use at the moment can exceed 300 m3. This is done as they are cheaper per unit volume than smaller cells, but they are not able to be controlled as easily as smaller cells. This process was invented in the 19th century in Australia. It was used to recover a sphalerite concentrate from tailings, produced using gravity concentration. Further improvements have come from Australia in the form of the Jameson cell. This operated by the use of a plunging jet that generates fine bubbles. These fine bubbles have a higher kinetic energy and as such they can be used for the flotation of fine grained minerals, such as those produces by the isamill.
Electrostatic separation:
There are two main types of electrostatic separators. These work in similar ways, but the forces applied to the particles are different and these forces are gravity and electrostatic attraction. The two types are electrodynamic separators (or high tension rollers) or electrostatic separators. In high tension rollers, particles are charged by a corona discharge. This charges the particles that subsequently travel on a drum. The conducting particles lose their charge to the drum and are removed from the drum with centripetal acceleration. Electrostatic plate separators work by passing a stream of particles past a charged anode. The conductors loose electrons to the plate and are pulled away from the other
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particles due to the induced attraction to the anode. These separators are used for particles between 75 and 250 micron and for efficient separation to occur, the particles need to be dry, have a close size
distribution and uniform in shape. Of these considerations, one of the most important is the water content of the particles. This is important as a layer of moisture on the particles will render the nonconductors as conductors as the layer of the water is conductive. Electrostatic plate separators are usually used for streams that have small conductors and coarse nonconductors. The high tension rollers are usually used for streams that have coarse conductors and fine non-conductors. These separators are commonly used for separating mineral sands, an example of one of these mineral processing plants is the CRL processing plant at Pinkenba in Brisbane Queensland. In this plant, zircon, rutile and ilmenite are separated from the silica gangue. In this plant, the separation is performed in a number of stages with roughers, cleaners, scavengers and recleaners.
Magnetic separation:
Minerals such as ilmenite and magnetite are naturally magnetic, and so can be separated from nonmagnetic particles using strong magnets. There are a number of different processes that can be used. These include HGMS, HIMS and LIMS. The HIMS and HGMS are differentiated as the HGMS separators are a batch process while the HIMS are a continuous process. These two processes are typically used forparamagnetic particles while the LIMS are used for ferromagnetic particles. The main considerations that need to be taken account when processing an ore is the size distribution, the presence of tramp metal and the liberation of the particles being separated. This process operates by moving particles in a magnetic field. The force experienced in the magnetic field is given by the equation f=m/k.H.dh/dx. with k=magnetic susceptibility, H-magnetic field strength, and dh/dx being the magnetic feild gradient. As seen in this equation, the separation can be driven in two ways, either through a gradient in a magnetic field or the strength of a magnetic field. The different driving forces are used in the different concentrators. These can be either with water or without. Like the spirals, washwater aids in the separation of the particles while increases the entrainment of the gangue in the concentrate.
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4. Dewatering:
Dewatering is an important process in mineral processing. The purpose of dewatering is to remove water contained in particles. This is done for a number of reasons, specifically, to enable ore handling and concentrates to be transported easily, allow further processing to occur and to dispose of the gangue. The water removed from dewatering can be recycled through a mineral processing plant. The
main processes that are used in dewatering include dewatering screens, sedimentation, filtering, and thermal drying. These processes increase in difficulty and cost as the particle size decreases. Dewatering screens operate by passing particles over a screen. The particles pass over the screen while the water passes through the apertures in the screen. This process is only viable for coarse ores that have a close size distribution as the apertures can allow small particles to pass though and are not able to be produced for small particles. Sedimentation operates by passing water into a large thickener or clarifier. In these devices, the particles settle out of the slurry under the effects of gravity or centripetal forces. These are limited by the surface chemistry of the particles and the size of the particles. To aid in the sedimentation process, floculants and coagulants are added to reduce the repulsive forces between the particles. This repulsive force is due to the double layer formed on the surface of the particles. The floculants work by binding multiple particles together while the coagulants work by reducing the thickness of the charged layer on the outside of the particle. Thermal drying is usually used for fine particles and to remove low water content in the particles. Some common processes include rotary dryers, fluidised beds, spray driers, hearth dryers and rotary tray dryers. This process is usually expensive to operate due to the heating requirements of the dryers.
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REFERANCES:
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