Kinetics of pyrometallurgical processes

Temperature is key variable used to control the rates of chemical processes. Two features that make the use high temperature processing attractive for applications in the commercial production and refining of metals are the high specific rates of production and the rapid approach to chemical equilibrium. Both chemical reactions and diffusive mass transfer rates are thermally activated processes, this naturally leads to the assumption that increasing processing temperature results in increased production rates. It turns out that in practice this is not always the case. In this webinar we explore some case studies and examine possible reasons for these unexpected phenomena.

About the speaker
Peter Hayes is Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Prof Hayes was Founding Director of the Pyrometallurgy Innovation Centre (PYROSEARCH) https://chemeng.uq.edu.au/pyrosearch. He is author of the book Process Principles in Minerals and Materials Production, now in its 4th edition. He has published over 400 research articles in journals, national and international conferences. His research interests include high temperature phase equilibria, and the kinetics and mechanisms of reactions. https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/482