Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

The material feed supply equipment in a flash smelting furnace is typically located above the burner assembly.Such feeders have associated disadvantages that can adversely affect the burner performance and causeproblems, such as low combustion efficiency, high pollution levels, and variable product metallurgy. Theseproblems result from a failure to achieve uniformity of the feed material, spatially and in timing on theappropriate scales, as well as causing segregation of the individual feed components with respect to particlesize, density and/or shape.Through this proposed NSERC Applied Research Development grant, industry leader Hatch Ltd. seeks toaddress this problem by engaging the faculty and student expertise in Sheridan College's Centre for AdvancedManufacturing and Design Technologies (CAMDT) in Brampton, Ontario. Specifically, the proposed appliedresearch project will harness the talent of a dedicated team at Sheridan to develop a novel system that involvesthe design and fabrication of a prototype Feed Flow Conditioner (FFC) through consultation and technicalsupport from the professional team at Hatch Ltd.The proposed system will include a continuously-fluidized chamber with an integrated valve cartridgeequipped with two actuators controlled by a closed-loop feedback system, in one compact unit. FFC willsupply a fluidized and homogenized feed into the smelting system, resulting in higher efficiency of thesmelting process, lower pollution levels, and controlled metallurgical specification of the product.