Advanced Process Control of a Froth Flotation Circuit

October 23, 2008

Dr. Sebastian Gaulocher Dr. Eduardo Gallestey ABB Switzerland Ltd. Henrik Lindvall Boliden Mineral AB, Sweden

2008 ABB Switzerland Ltd, Corporate Research, CH-RD.C1

A riddle to make you awake

What material is this coin made of?

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copper zinc

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Zinc is omnipresent
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Production and price of zinc

Zinc mines in the world Artists view of mining

(Annaberger Bergaltar) Zinc price is skyrocketing

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Total annual production: 10 million tons (2006)

What is flotation?

Flotation: unit operation at the heart of mineral processing

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Explanation of the Flotation Process

Objective: separation of valuable minerals and gangue Ore is

extracted from the mine ground in a mill, and mixed with water and chemical reagents (activator, collector, and depressant).
Reagent addition

Pulp flow in which

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desired mineral particles are hydrophobic gangue particles are hydrophilic

Semi-autogenous mill

Explanation of the Flotation Process

In a flotation cell,
air

a feed port provides incoming pulp, an impeller mixes the pulp, air is blown into the cell and dispersed, hydrophobic particles attach to the air air bubbles float and form froth on the surface
feed

concentrate

tailings

Separation between
hydrophobic (desired mineral) and
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Sketch of a flotation cell

buoyancy air bubble Hydrophobic particles

hydrophilic (gangue) particles into concentrate (froth) and tailings (pulp)

Flotation of mineral particles

Explanation of the Flotation Process

Flotation cell

feed

tail. conc.

Several flotation cells form a flotation bank

Several flotation banks form a flotation circuit

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Several flotation circuits form a concentrator

ore

Cu-Pb flotation

Cu flotation Zn flotation

Cu conc. Pb conc. Zn conc. gangue

Manipulated and measured variables of a circuit

recirculating flow AT

BL031 AT feed FT

FA301

FA302

FA303

FA304

FA305 AT tailings

Legend:
air addition

AT

FT

AT

AT

FT hydrocyclone

froth level change reagent addition

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FA104

FA103

FA101

FA102

AT

X-ray analyzer volume flow meter

AT concentrate regrinding mill

FT

Where are we and where do we want to go?

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State of the art

Manual control, intricate due to intricate dynamics (e.g. recirculating flows), frequent feed variations (quantity and quality), and operator shift changes No circuit-wide automatic control at present

Objectives
Maximization of plant output Observance of minimum concentrate grade
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Reduction of chemical reagent use Prevention of costly unplanned plant stops by respecting operating range of plant

Expert Optimizer ABB Standard platform for APC

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Features:
General Calculations
Arithmetic, Boolean

Fuzzy Logic
Human reasoning

Neural Networks
Soft sensors

Model Predictive Control

(Piecewise) Linear Hybrid systems Non-linear (Modelica)
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Web Based HMIs

Highly Configurable Drag and Drop

General set-up of estimation and control

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Signal processing
Measurements

OPC protocol for communication

Estimation of process state variables Require solving an optimization problem (MHE, moving horizon estimation) Parameter estimation
State estimates

ABB 800xA control platform

Sensors Actuators Flotation process

Computation of optimal set-points (MPC, model predictive control)

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Set-points

Postprocessing of set-points Done in Expert Optimizer

Linearised first-principle approach

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The process model is: Mechanistic (first principles)

Mass and volume balances Pulp-to-froth transfer model Variables: volumes and volume flows of relevant fractions
Component model
MLD Fl. cell

Linearized about an operating point Formulated in discrete time Generic and modular (component-wise):
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Component library

flotation cell, mixing tank, analyzers, volume flow meters,

Easily understandable, maintainable, adaptable, and reusable

Circuit assembly in Expert Optimizer

Linearised first-principle approach Model predictive control (MPC):

Optimization variables:
Air rates Collector addition

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Objectives:
Minimize tailings flow Guarantee minimum concentrate grade Keep grade at various positions within specified limits

click on picture to enlarge

Moving horizon estimation (MHE):

Optimization variables:
Dynamic states (cell and tank contents)
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External disturbances (feed, water)

Objective:
Find a compromise between past measurements and the process model in order to obtain the optimal estimates for plant states and disturbances
click on picture to enlarge

Pilot Plant and Results

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Development of control strategy in a cooperation between

ABB (Switzerland and Sweden) and Boliden Minerals AB, Garpenberg Concentrator (Sweden)

Application of control strategy to an industrial plant (zinc flotation circuit as shown in flow sheet) Controller is currently being long-term tested with encouraging results so far:

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Model Predictive Control

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Method for handling disturbances and forecast changes Main ingredients are
Plant model Objective functional
past future controlled variable manipulated variable t t+1 t+m t+p

Model predicts system behaviour some steps into the future Requires solution of optimization problem at every sampling time

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t+1 t+2

t+1+m

t+1+p

Linearised first-principle approach

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Assembly of flotation circuit for model predictive control:

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Linearised first-principle approach

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Assembly of flotation circuit for moving horizon estimation:

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Mixed Logical Dynamical System (MLD)

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Developed at Federal Institute of Technology Zrich (ETH Zrich), Switzerland Framework for handling both real-valued and booleanvalued variables (hybrid system) Can describes plant constraints, interconnections and the objective function Extension of classical state-space approach (red box)

x(t + 1) = Ax(t ) + B1u (t ) + B2 (t ) + B3 z (t )

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y (t )

= Cx(t ) + D1u (t ) + D2 (t ) + D3 z (t )

E2 (t ) + E3 z (t ) E1u (t ) + E4 x(t ) + E5

Flotation Cell

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Mechanistic model of a flotation cell Three inputs: feed, froth level, and air Two outputs: concentrate and tailings Volume balance in the cell: vol[k+1] = vol[k] + T( feed[k] tail[k] conc[k] )

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Flow sheet of a froth flotation circuit

recirculating flow AT

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BL031 AT feed FT

FA301

FA302

FA303

FA304

FA305 AT tailings

Legend:
air addition

AT

FT

AT

AT

FT hydrocyclone

froth level change reagent addition

2008 ABB Switzerland Ltd

FA104

FA103

FA101

FA102

AT

X-ray analyzer volume flow meter

AT concentrate regrinding mill

FT

Feed grade variation

Zinc grade Solid fraction

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Day time (Mar 3, 2008)

Day time (Feb 27, 2008)