Some remarks of the problem of current density optimization in copper electrorefining process

Abstract

The paper presents a method of determination of the copper electrorefining current density jopt and of the mass unit production cost kopt, using the simplified model of the flow electrolyser. The analysis takes into account the capital costs, electrical energy costs, heating costs and the electrolyte pumping costs. Additionally, the cooling costs, fixed costs and usually neglected costs of noble metal losses were also taken into consideration. Based on the present literature data the values of the above-mentioned cost coefficients have been estimated in order to determine the optimum current densities in real industrial systems. It has been shown that for the typical industrial systems the optimum current density jopt ∼ 670 A m−2 as the cost of $65 per ton of copper produced. The method presented here does not depend on the system scale.