Corrosion Chronicle Spring 2013

Transcript

The Corrosion Chronicle Spring 2013 In this issue • Nerin Designs SO2 Scrubber • Zhuzhou Chooses Derakane Resins for Acid Leach Tanks Where you can see the Ashland corrosion team Design Engineers Depend on FRP for Mineral Processing Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) has been used to build corrosion resistant mineral processing equipment for more than 40 years. The operating conditions associated with mineral processing often require materials of construction that can withstand process acids and acid chlorides at temperatures up to 90°C. This service is not compatible with most common metallic materials of construction. Only expensive metal alloys offer the corrosion resistance required. The use of fiberglass reinforced plastics based on Derakane™ epoxy vinyl ester resins for the construction of electrowinning cells, storage and processing vessels, acid & abrasion resistant piping, ducting and acid plants offers both durable and cost-saving solutions for these applications. Today, more and more design engineers are specifying FRP composites for equipment used in hydrometallurgical processes. Mineral processing continues to be an important high growth industry. According to Lucintel, the global mining industry will reach US $1,783 billion by 2017, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4%. ResearchandMarkets.com estimates that the US metals & mining industry had total revenues of $201.5 billion in 2011, and will grow to a value of $273 billion by 2016 (6.3% CAGR). Accenture reports that mining capital investments worldwide increased from $US 16 billion in 2001 to nearly $US 80 billion in 2011. Top investments in 2011 were made by Vale (US$ 22 billion), Rio Tinto (US$ 12 billion) and BHP Billiton (US$ 10 billion). ACMA Corrosion, Mining & Infrastructure Symposium Las Vegas, NV U.S.A. May 15 - 16, 2013 Polymer Composites 2013 Pilzen, Czech Republic May 28 - 29, 2013 China Sulfuric Acid Conference Shanghai, China June 5 - 6, 2013 Alabama Composites Conference Birmingham, AL U.S.A. June 18 - 20, 2013 Composites CIS Sevastopol, Ukraine Sept. 2013 The last five years have seen particularly heavy investments in the North American mining industry. These investments include Vale’s Long Harbour (Newfoundland) complex processing continued on page 2 With good chemistry great things happen.™ Design Engineers continued nickel, cobalt and copper ores from the Voisey’s Bay mine along with Baja Mining’s El Boleo (Mexico) copper/cobalt mineral processing plant and MolyCorp’s Mountain Pass Rare Earth processing plant in California. One thing that all of these facilities have in common is the aggressive hydrometallurgical processes they employ to extract metal(s) from the raw ore. Another key aspect all three have in common is their extensive use of FRP-based mineral processing equipment to withstand those same highly corrosive processes. Long Harbour Plant Clarifiers with FRP Covers from Plasticon Canada Long Harbour The Long Harbour Processing Plant is expected to process more than 50,000 MT/yr of nickel ore from the Voisey’s Bay mine in Labrador when it starts up in 2014. While the hydrometallurgical processes are indeed proprietary, they rely heavily upon hydrochloric acid at elevated temperatures to extract nickel metal from the ore. This is an environment not typically recommended for carbon steel or even most stainless steel alloys. Properly designed and fabricated FRP laminates based on Derakane™ epoxy vinyl ester resins, however, stand up to this environment quite well as is shown in the chart below. Plasticon Canada, operating at the time as AC Plastiques Canada, collaborated with ECC Corrosion to support Vale’s Long Harbour project. Plasticon Canada provided a wide variety of FRP equipment including: • 4 FRP scrubbers with diameters varying between 12” and 72” and up to 30ft of height • 18 FRP demisters with diameters varying between 18” and 108” and up to 18ft tall; • 1 dual laminate CPVC/FRP scrubber 72” x 32 ft ; • 3 FRP stacks up to 90 feet high; • 13 clarifier circular FRP covers with diameters varying from 11.5ft to 100ft, weighing all together 117 tons ECC Corrosion additionally supplied the following corrosion resistant FRP equipment as part of the same bid award: • 64 cylindrical FRP tanks with diameters varying between 5 ft and 20 ft and standing up to 30 ft tall; • 6 rectangular FRP tanks, all approximately 36 ft x 17 ft x 17 ft and each weighing between 35,000 and 45,000 lbs “A project of this magnitude is not without its challenges. As stated by Eric Lamontagne, CEO for Plasticon Canada, “ We enlisted the help of Al Newberry to support AC Plastiques engineering efforts and ECC engaged Rick Van Name on their side.” Jamie Mancl, ECC President added, “This project was indeed challenging, with complex vessels and tight delivery timeframes but we were able to provide the type of quality cylindrical and rectangular  composite structures that the project required”. The Denali group including Ershigs, Fabricated Plastics and Belco delivered a total of 64 FRP tanks to the Long Harbour project. All of this equipment was fabricated with Derakane epoxy vinyl ester resins from Ashland. The storage vessels were designed for a variety of corrosive environments including hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide and boric acid. They were produced through a filament winding process routinely conducted at the Belco and Fabricated Plastics facilities. Vessels ranged in size up to 18 Derakane Epoxy Vinyl Ester Resin Chemical Resistance Compared to Alloys Materials Sulfuric Acid Hydrochloric Acid Acid Chloride Salts FRP made with Derakane resins 100oC to 30% 80oC to 15% 100oC All conc. 2205 Stainless Steel 30oC to 30% 60oC to 1% 65oC to 2000 ppm @ low pH Alloy C-276 100oC to 30% 80oC to 15% 65oC to 50M ppm @ low pH 2 | Corrosion Chronicle feet in diameter (5.5 meters) and over 27 feet in height (8.4 meters). A number of the vessels, however, were even larger measuring diameters up to 13.4 meters (44 feet) and heights up to 15.65 meters (51 feet). Initially, Vale was unconvinced that such large vessels could be made from FRP. In the end, however, Ershigs was able to persuade Vale that it was indeed feasible to fabricate and transport vessels of this size. Part of that persuasive argument was to visit flue gas desulfurization (FGD) projects in the power industry where Ershigs and Augusta Fiberglass had each built even larger FRP structures. In fact, the current record for large diameter FRP structures is the six 119 foot diameter Jet Bubbling Reactors (JBR) located in major Power Generation Plants in the Southeast US. Once Vale toured one of these air pollution control facilities and inspected the enormous JBR scrubber, feasibility was no longer in doubt. Corrosion Technology International (CTI), the largest polymer concrete electrolytic cell producer in the world, partnered with Capital Precast (CP), the largest pre-cast company in Newfoundland to produce 332 cells for the nickel, cobalt and copper electrowinning circuits. Rectangular FRP Tanks Fabricated by ECC The nickel electrowinning (NiEw) and cobalt electrowinning (CoEW) cells each weighed in excess of 10 MT making them the largest of their type ever manufactured. In addition to the cells, CTI/CP also designed and supplied structural beams for walkway support. According to Kevin Curran, CEO for CTI, “The combination of CTI’s UNICELL technology and Capital’s local facilities, staff and general manufacturing know-how produced all 332 cells in time to suit the project schedule as it unfolded.” But the fabrication of FRP equipment for the Long Harbour project doesn’t stop there. Miles of acid and abrasion resistant piping was specially fabricated by Ershigs and others for the hydromet plant and Bateman delivered a host of mixer settlers to the site. In addition, Universal Fan made more than 70 large FRP exhaust fans. Many more vendors delivered FRP ducting, hoods, cooling towers and process vessels to the Long Harbour project. All in all, more than 10 million lbs of FRP was utilized in this world class mineral processing plant. El Boleo The Boleo project in Mexico on the Baja peninsula is another large hydrometallurgical site that specified a great deal of FRP equipment. When commissioned, the $1.4 Billion undertaking is expected to produce 60,000 MT/yr copper, 3100 MT/yr cobalt, 36,000 MT/yr zinc and 100,000 – 250,000 MT/yr manganese carbonate. While not nearly as large as the Long Harbour plant, Boleo required dozens of FRP processing vessels and storage tanks as well as miles of acid and abrasion resistant FRP piping. A great many FRP tanks were built for the Boleo hydromet plant. Many were so large that they needed to be fabricated on site. Ershigs was commissioned to fabricate 9 tanks for the Boleo project. The tanks were 11.5 meters in diameter (38 feet) by 12.5 meters high (41 feet) with domed tops and flat bottoms. They were designed to withstand the corrosive acid environment used in the extraction of desired metals from the Boleo ore. Augusta Fiberglass also provided FRP vessels to the Boleo project – twenty five in all. Some incorporated silicon carbide into the corrosion barrier to enhance their resistance to abrasion from ore slurries. Others had fire retardance built into the structural layers with Derakane™ 510N epoxy vinyl ester resin. The tanks ranged in size from 10 feet to 15 feet in diameter and from 11.5 feet to 41 feet in height. All of the Ershigs and Augusta vessels were fabricated with Ashland Derakane epoxy vinyl ester resins. Ultra-Large Ershigs HCl Tanks Fiber-Tech Industries and Structural Composite Technologies collaborated to fabricate the FRP components (designed by well-known FRP consultant Bob Yeates) required to protect the 6 Counter Current Decantation (CCD) vessels. These specially designed metal extraction vessels are more than 60 meters (200 feet) across. They possess a concrete base with a thick FRP liner (fabricated by Fiber-Tech) which gives the vessels considerable acid and abrasion resistance. Structural Composite Technologies delivered nearly 200 FRP launders to complete the CCD set up. RPS Composites was awarded the contract for the acid and abrasion resistant piping needed for the Boleo facility. RPS Composites (with the help of Fiber-Tech Industries) is also designing, supplying, and installing FRP liners for 12 concrete settlers and 6 concrete tanks. In fact, over the last three years RPS has supplied more than 1.5 million lbs of FRP for mineral processing projects including – • 30,000 fittings • 150,000 feet of piping • 7,500 FRP wear pads & thrust collars • 12,000 custom designed steel supports Application environments included wet chlorine gas, hydrochloric acid, plating reagents, biocides, aqueous organic solutions, sodium hydroxide, boric acid and sodium chloride. RPS pipe systems were chosen for these applications because they offer significant advantages over alternative materials such as rubber lined carbon steel, stainless steels, and high nickel alloys. These advantages include lower installed costs, lower life cycle costs, and better resistance to a broad range of chemical environments. Ashland Derakane epoxy vinyl ester resins were used to fabricate all of this FRP equipment. As Robert Hawkins, RPS Composites President put it, “Ashland resins were chosen for their proven track record in aggressive applications, for their workability on the shop floor, and for the timely technical support we receive from Ashland. Ashland’s support of RPS helps us enable our customers to fully realize the benefits of composite materials by providing them with smarter choices.” Plásticos Industriales de Tampico (PITSA) was also awarded the fabrication of more than 500 metric tons of composite FRP conductive and nonconductive piping and accessories for the Boleo project. The conductive pipe and accessories is intended for organic flow service, fabricated with a conductive carbon veil and Derakane 510 N epoxy vinyl ester resins with 5% antimony added to meet ASTM 84 Class I fire retardant requirements. Spring 2013 | 3 Ershigs Tanks for Boleo Hydromet Plant Mountain Pass The $1.42B Mountain Pass project began producing rare earth oxides in 2012 at a rate of 8,000 to 10,000 metric tons a year. That rate is expected to increase to 19,050 MT by mid 2013 with a potential to reach as much as 40,000 MT in 2014 depending upon market demand. At that point MolyCorp would be delivering nearly a third of the current global supply of rare earths. The Mountain Pass hydromet plant not only needed to extract a variety of rare earth elements from the ore body, but it also needed to separate the individual elements once they were extracted. This necessitated not only the use of aggressive reagents but a large number of processing vessels as well. Once again, process design engineers turned to FRP for the complex chemistry needed to process the Mountain Pass ore. Dozens of FRP extraction and separation tanks were required to complete the hydromet process. Plas-Tanks Industries and Daniel Company fabricated most of the FRP tanks on this site. Plas-Tanks delivered 23 vessels ranging in size from 6,000 to 35,000 gallons using Derakane™ epoxy vinyl ester resins. Most of the tanks were 12 to 14 feet in diameter. The tallest was about 32 feet in height. The corrosive service included hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite (bleach). Daniel 4 | Corrosion Chronicle provided 17 vessels to the Mountain Pass project. Most of the tanks were 13’-6” in diameter and nearly 25 feet tall. Mineral processing environments are some of the most aggressive in the world. Equipment design and construction is heavily tested by the reagents used in these metal extraction processes. Hydrometallurgical equipment is more durable when made from FRP fabricated with Derakane epoxy vinyl ester resins from Ashland. These resins have defined a legacy of Structural FG Launders excellence in corrosion-resistant FRP applications from chemical processing, water treatment and pollution control to mineral processing. There is no substitute for proven reliability. When failure is not an option, design engineers rely on the corrosion experts at Ashland and FRP fabricated from Derakane epoxy vinyl ester resins. Daniel Company Tanks for Mountain Pass Project Reagent Storage Vessels Fabricated by Plas-Tanks with Derakane Resins MolyCorp’s Mountain Pass Hydromet Facility Spring 2013 | 5 Nerin Designs SO2 Scrubber with Derakane™ resins China is the world’s largest consumer of copper. The Chinese copper smelting industry has grown nearly 23% per year over the last five years to $130 Billion in 2012 according to IBIS. Last year, approximately 21% of domestic copper demand was satisfied with imported material. Copper mining plants predominately use pyrometallurgical processes to produce pure copper metal from the raw ore. The roasting or smelting process releases large amounts of SO2/SO3, which cannot be emitted into the atmosphere. Instead these sulfur oxides are captured in a scrubbing process and converted to sulfuric acid. The scrubbing process is highly corrosive, especially where the hot, wet, flue gases with high concentrations of SO3/SO2 come into contact with metals or metal alloys. Derakane Momentum 470-300 epoxy vinyl ester resin is the only material with proven reliability in the FRP-based SO2 scrubber. It has been specified in major nonferrous institutes’ design throughout China over the last several decades. At operating temperatures up to 65C, this unique piece of FRP equipment transforms gaseous sulfur oxides into concentrated (10 – 26%) sulfuric acid. The FRP-based SO2 scrubber also routinely used to replace traditional, yet inferior rubber-lined steel scrubbers in older China copper smelting plants. Ershigs Wins ACE Award at ACMA Composites 2013 The Infinite Possibility for Market Growth Award, for demonstrating the potential to significantly increase the use of composites in existing or developing markets, was presented to Ershigs, Inc. for its DOW/CFT Tequatic Plus™ F-50 Fine Particle Filter Vessel. The TEQUATIC™ PLUS filter is ideal for difficult-to-treat water applications across markets, including produced water where it is used as a primary filter removing high and low density solids from production oil and gas wells, and in a pre-filtration role removing solids and biological contaminants in front of finer, reverse osmosis (RO) filtering technologies in applications such as desalination – thereby protecting downstream assets. Ershigs worked closely with Clean Filtration Technologies LLC (“CFT”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow, to produce the housing for the TEQUATIC PLUS filter. “The composite material design and production is key to the success of the TEQUATIC PLUS filter, and we are elated that Ershig’s submission was successful and that our product received this award,” said Cedella Beazley, CFT general manager. “The award reflects a deep commitment and collaboration between Dow Water & Process Solutions and suppliers to continuously innovate and provide leading filtration solutions to customers.” The TEQUATIC PLUS filter housing features fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites made with Derakane epoxy vinyl ester resin in a light resin transfer molding (RTM) process. This technology is ideal for the high-volume production of 6 | Corrosion Chronicle products having complex geometries and requiring high strength, tight tolerances and light weight. These and other features enable the TEQUATIC PLUS filter to be produced cost effectively and to operate in a broader range of corrosive environments and applications compared to metal alloys. Applications range from produced water for oil and gas, municipal wastewater treatment and reuse, to desalination, power and industrial. Across applications, the TEQUATIC PLUS filter has the flexibility to treat very high and highly variable total suspended solids, functioning as a primary filter, a prefilter for ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO), or as post filter following water reuse technologies like moving bed bioreactor (MBBR). Zhuzhou Chooses Derakane™ Resins for Acid Leach Tanks Zhuzhou Nonferrous Company, established in 1959, operates the largest lead-zinc smelter in China. They are located in the city of Zhuzhou in the Hunan Province. Recently they announced plans to raise production of lead and zinc to 635,000 MT in 2013, up nearly 13% from last year’s record mark of 563,000 MT. In support of these aggressive growth plans, Zhuzhou introduced a new technology back in 2007 for zinc extraction. This new hydrometallurgical process utilizes a mixture of highly corrosive acids to aggressively leach Zinc from the mined ore. Large, specially designed leaching tanks were required to resist the highly corrosive leach acids as well as the temperature changes encountered during the leaching process. Ashland China collaborated with Zhuzhou to identify the proper epoxy vinyl ester resin for this service as determined through the extensive corrosion data in the Derakane Corrosion Guide and the vast portfolio of Derakane case histories in similar service environments. In the end, Derakane 441 epoxy vinyl ester resin was recommended for this particular corrosion environment. The leaching tanks were designed by Outotec and fabricated by Zhongfulianzhong (ZFLZ). Five years later they remain in excellent condition without any leakage or need for repairs. As Mr. Songping Wang, Regional Sales Manager for ZFLZ put it, “In China, Derakane™ epoxy vinyl ester resin is our first choice for most new FRP projects or new applications because we believe Derakane resin is the best for anticorrosion performance. Ashland’s support and Derakane’s reliability help us greatly to persuade end users to accept FRP equipment. “ Zhuzhou acid leach tanks fabricated with Derakane 441 epoxy vinyl ester resin Spring 2013 | 7 Global Headquarters Ashland Inc. 50 East RiverCenter Blvd. Covington, KY 41012 USA Tel: +1 859 815 3333 Ashland Performance Materials 5200 Blazer Parkway Dublin, OH 43017 USA Tel: +1 614 790 3333 Regional Centers We want to hear from you! Do you have a technical question about using an Ashland resin? Want to know what resin is suitable for a given application? 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For additional technical product information on Derakane resins, visit www.derakane.com or send an email to [email protected]. You can also contact your Ashland representative at Ashland Composite Polymers, P.O. Box 2219, Columbus, OH 43216, 614.790.4059. Address all news items to: Corrosion Chronicle Editor, Ashland Communications, P.O. Box 2219, Columbus, OH 43216. Text and illustrations may not be reproduced without permission. The information herein is correct to the best of our knowledge. The recommendations or suggestions contained in this bulletin are made without guarantee or representation as to results. We suggest that you evaluate these recommendations and suggestions in your own laboratory prior to use. Our responsibility for claims arising from breach of warranty, negligence, or otherwise is limited to the purchase price of the material. Freedom to use any patent owned by Ashland or others is not to be inferred from any statement contained herein.