A VALIDATED MATHEMATICAL-MODEL FOR A ZINC ELECTROWINNING CELL

A set of (95) equations forming a dynamic, nonlinear model of an industrial pilot-plant scale zinc electrowinning cell fed with high purity electrolyte is presented. Only the solution of the steady-state model is considered in this paper. Values for unknown model parameters have either been obtained from the literature or else estimated using experimental data taken from the pilot-plant cell. Sensitivity studies showed that uncertainties in the temperature dependency of the zinc and hydrogen reaction exchange current densities and the exchange coefficient for the hydrogen reaction have a major effect on the model predictions. Excellent agreement between predicted and experimental results was obtained, provided that cathodic mass transfer effects were included in the model. Both parameter estimation and solution of the steady-state model were carried out using the SPEEDUP flowsheeting package.