Development and Implementation of a Zinc Electrowinning Process Simulation

A process simulation of industrial zinc electrowinning was developed for potential use in process control and optimization. The simulation improved on the abilities of a conventional mass and energy balance by including predictions of voltage, current efficiency and reaction kinetics. The simulation is based on previous models developed in the literature. These models were modified and are now presented in C++ within a process simulation program making the simulation dynamic and time dependent. Relations for solution conductivity, density and bubble effects have been incorporated as well as estimates of dissolved ion activities using Pitzer parameters,. New kinetic parameters for zinc deposition and hydrogen evolution have been incorporated. The new simulation was validated against data presented in the literature for past models. An industrial cell house was simulated and good agreement was found between industrial and simulated data.