KCM—Innovator in the Pb Metal
Production Through Ausmelt Technology
and Variable SO 2 Concentration Off-Gas
Utilization
Nikolay Starev and Georgi Doganov
Abstract KCM 2000 Group is the principal of the non-ferrous smelter located near
Plovdiv, Bulgaria, with an annual production of 70,000 tpy lead and 75,000 tpy zinc
including their alloys and compounds. As part of a large-scale renovation plan, a
new brown field lead smelting plant was commissioned in the middle of 2014. It
was designed to produce 75,000 tpy crude lead and 55,000 tpy sulphuric acids in
an economically feasible and environmentally friendly way of substituting the old
sintering–blast furnace technology. The New Lead Plant (NLP) compiles the best
available techniques (BAT) in the metallurgical industry such as the Ausmelt top
submerged lance (TSL) smelting and wet gas sulphuric acid process. At the end of
2016, the New Lead Plant reached its design capacity and proved to perform better
than designed regarding utility consumption. Since the beginning of 2017, the plant
has been operating steadily with increasing results.
Keywords Ausmelt smelting · Lead production · TSL
The Process
The metallurgical process is organized in cycles with the duration of around 9 h
each. Every batch consists of two stages—smelting of around 7 h when the furnace
is fed with raw materials and subsequent 1.5 h of slag reduction with lump coal.
Both stages take place in a single vessel. At the end of the batch, the slag is tapped,
granulated, and stockpiled for zinc recovery. All utilities, such as air, oxygen, and
natural gas are injected through the lance submerged in the bath.
The feed material mixture is prepared in a new preparation department equipped
with day bins for each kind of feed, weight belt feeders controlled by a furnace control
system and a mixing drum for conditioning moisture and particle size. The structure of
the raw materials is primary lead concentrates mined locally and secondary materials
such as lead paste from KCM’s Spent Lead–Acid Batteries Plant, lead cakes from
N. Starev · G. Doganov (B)
KCM 2000 Group, Asenovgradsko shose, 4009 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
e-mail: georgi.doganov@kcm.bg
© The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society 2020
A. Siegmund et al. (eds.), PbZn 2020: 9th International Symposium
on Lead and Zinc Processing, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37070-1_28
321
Production Through Ausmelt Technology
and Variable SO 2 Concentration Off-Gas
Utilization
Nikolay Starev and Georgi Doganov
Abstract KCM 2000 Group is the principal of the non-ferrous smelter located near
Plovdiv, Bulgaria, with an annual production of 70,000 tpy lead and 75,000 tpy zinc
including their alloys and compounds. As part of a large-scale renovation plan, a
new brown field lead smelting plant was commissioned in the middle of 2014. It
was designed to produce 75,000 tpy crude lead and 55,000 tpy sulphuric acids in
an economically feasible and environmentally friendly way of substituting the old
sintering–blast furnace technology. The New Lead Plant (NLP) compiles the best
available techniques (BAT) in the metallurgical industry such as the Ausmelt top
submerged lance (TSL) smelting and wet gas sulphuric acid process. At the end of
2016, the New Lead Plant reached its design capacity and proved to perform better
than designed regarding utility consumption. Since the beginning of 2017, the plant
has been operating steadily with increasing results.
Keywords Ausmelt smelting · Lead production · TSL
The Process
The metallurgical process is organized in cycles with the duration of around 9 h
each. Every batch consists of two stages—smelting of around 7 h when the furnace
is fed with raw materials and subsequent 1.5 h of slag reduction with lump coal.
Both stages take place in a single vessel. At the end of the batch, the slag is tapped,
granulated, and stockpiled for zinc recovery. All utilities, such as air, oxygen, and
natural gas are injected through the lance submerged in the bath.
The feed material mixture is prepared in a new preparation department equipped
with day bins for each kind of feed, weight belt feeders controlled by a furnace control
system and a mixing drum for conditioning moisture and particle size. The structure of
the raw materials is primary lead concentrates mined locally and secondary materials
such as lead paste from KCM’s Spent Lead–Acid Batteries Plant, lead cakes from
N. Starev · G. Doganov (B)
KCM 2000 Group, Asenovgradsko shose, 4009 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
e-mail: georgi.doganov@kcm.bg
© The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society 2020
A. Siegmund et al. (eds.), PbZn 2020: 9th International Symposium
on Lead and Zinc Processing, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37070-1_28
321