Hatch Helm Tracker for Guiding Cell House Performance Improvement

Abstract

In electrowinning (EW) and electrorefining (ER) operations, the detection of shortcircuits and poor current distribution has been a very labour intensive reactive operationstask. The Hatch HELM tracker™ system measures and records the current flow of everycathode and/or anode in real time and presents this information to the operators through an表明existen交互显示清楚ce of shorts, poor contacts, and any unevencurrent distribution. It also provides operators with help with prioritisation to allow efficientcorrection of current distribution issues. Expected benefits include increases in currentefficiency, and thus reduction in operating costs and/ or increases in production, as well asreduction in electrode damage due to shorts.

Hatch has been demonstrating the robustness and performance of the HELM tracker系统through trials at commercial copper EW and ER plants including at EW facilitiesoperated by Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), with assistance from the company’s management,technology and operating personnel. This paper includes some observations and outcomesfrom these trials as well as technical advances from other trial locations. The technology isalmost ready for commercialization and the paper describes the business case for installing执掌追踪系统copper EW applications indicating the financial payback of thesystem for this particular application.