Wanyang Zinc Industry: Commissioning of China's First 186㎡ Fluidized Roasting Furnace

On the morning of May 6, the 186㎡ fluidized bed roasting furnace of the 150,000 mt/year green and intelligent zinc-based material manufacturing project of Henan Wanyang Zinc Industry Co., Ltd. commenced feeding and production.

The 150,000 mt/year green and intelligent zinc-based material manufacturing project of Henan Wanyang Zinc Industry Co., Ltd. adopts a main process flow that includes roasting, conventional leaching, three-stage antimony salt purification, 3.2㎡ large-plate electrodeposition, and induction electric furnace zinc melting and casting. It is also equipped with an efficient and comprehensive "leaching residue side-blowing + fuming treatment" system, as well as a comprehensive recycling and water atomized zinc system, enabling maximum realization of green, reduction, and recycling principles. This positions it as a relatively well-configured zinc smelter within the industry.

The roasting system employs the first 186m² roasting furnace in China. The main advantages of large fluidized bed roasting furnaces include stable and reliable production, low operating costs, strong processing capacity, relatively small raw material requirements, good thermal stability, and the ability to effectively process materials of various grades from different regions nationwide, resulting in a high solubility rate of zinc in the roasted product. As an upgraded version of the 152m² furnace model, the staffing configuration remains largely consistent with the 152m² model, yet the production capacity can be increased by nearly 40%, reaching a normal capacity of approximately 250,000 mt, significantly enhancing economic benefits. The 186m² roasting furnace represents the largest roasting system for a single series in zinc smelting. The successful commissioning of this project will serve as a demonstration for the future construction and stable operation of ultra-large-scale, ultra-high-standard zinc smelting projects.

In this project, the 3.2m² plate electrolysis production control is entirely centralized in the control room. Operations such as cathode loading and unloading, mechanical zinc stripping, mechanical cathode plate scrubbing, anode automatic flattening, and cleaning are all carried out automatically according to pre-programmed sequences, enabling full automation of cathode loading and unloading, as well as anode cleaning and flattening, significantly reducing labor costs and worker intensity. For an electrolysis workshop of the same scale, approximately 200 workers are typically required, whereas this project, with its automation investment, only requires around 80 workers. In the past, traditional small-plate (1.6m²) electrolysis processes typically utilized around 800 electrolytic cells, whereas this project's large-plate electrolysis cells only require around 200, significantly reducing the need for factory floor space. Cathode-deposited zinc sheets are automatically transported by a crane to the automatic cathode zinc stripping machine. The stripped zinc sheets are then transported by an automatic plate-connecting elevator to the feeding platform of the melting and casting workshop, where they are automatically added to the induction electric furnace. Robots stir and skim off the dross, and the skinned zinc sheets are processed through the casting machine, automatic palletizing, packing, static weighing, and labeling, after which the products are temporarily stored in the finished product warehouse by AGV automatic forklifts. This achieves automation and intelligent upgrading from zinc sheets to zinc ingots, realizing intelligent transformation in the smelting industry.