Evaluation of flow and heat transfer behavior in parallel flow copper electro-refining cell with different inlet arrangements

Abstract

Parallel flow copper electro-refining cell technology has been developed for over a decade, and the flow field in these cells is significantly influenced by the arrangement of the electrolyte inlets. Four computational fluid dynamics models were developed to compare the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the electrolyte under varying electrolyte inlet arrangements. These models include bi-directional parallel flow (BPF), staggered parallel flow (SPF), top inlet unidirectional parallel flow (UPF-T), and bottom inlet unidirectional parallel flow (UPF-B). Flow and heat transfer simulations were conducted for each model. The simulation results indicate that the BPF and SPF electro-refining cells exhibit varying degrees of kinetic energy loss, which leads to lower volume-weighted average velocities and impacts the rapid circulation of the electrolyte. The UPF-B is the most effective in terms of both flow uniformity and flow velocity, with the UPF-T following closely behind. The temperature in the inter-pole area is elevated when the SPF and UPF-T are arranged, which is more conducive to the diffusion of copper ions. The copper cathode production efficiency and deposition uniformity are enhanced by the UPF-B arrangement, which enables the liquid to be supplied to the inter-pole area more rapidly and uniformly.