A brief summary of the research and engineering work performed by professors, graduate students, and students of the Department of Furnaces, Control and Automation of Metallurgical Processes in 2000 is given. Two main directions of research activities were modeling of technological equipment for metal production and modeling of control systems for industrial metallurgical furnaces. In the first direction of research the following mathematical models were developed: converter conversion of smelting shop of Pechenganickel metallurgical plant; ore thermal smelting process; dissolution and liquation processes; waste water treatment using calcium hydrocarboaluminate. The technology of zinc-tin iron dust processing in a rotary kiln was also developed. A method of separating suspensions using LAROX PF press-filters was introduced. The second area of research includes works on development of spectral density method for synthesis of control systems with intermittent lag and on improvement of efficiency of manipulation of gas regimes in converters.

Due to the insufficiency of operational technological control of the process of electrolytic aluminum production, its automated control has to be based on methods of indirect estimation of unmeasured parameters. An algorithm for estimating one of the most important non-measurable parameters - the current alumina concentration in the melt - from the measured electrical parameters with their nonlinear relationship has been developed.

In 1971, employees of the NMMC GMOITs proposed a technology for converting mattes without the addition of siliceous fluxes, which, according to the authors, would reduce the yield of converter slags and, in the future, allow them to be processed to extract iron.

General characteristics of the smelting. In the practice of heavy non-ferrous metal production, new technological processes are becoming increasingly widespread, based on improving the conditions of heat and mass transfer, the use of oxygen and heated blast (due to secondary energy resources) as an intensifier, and the application of more economical fuels. ...

One of the most important structural elements of the unit for continuous conversion of matte by the method of the LGI – Gipronickel is the unit of blast supply to the melt. In industrial continuous conversion units, the critical periods of tuyere operation must be reduced to a minimum through stable operation of the unit, relatively small fluctuations in the bath level, maintenance of the optimal distance between the tuyere and the melt, and the optimal thickness of the slag layer on the bath. This will help significantly extend the service life of industrial tuyeres.

In the case of a complete cycle of continuous conversion with the production in one unit of the final product from matte — white metal — and the discharge of acceptable converter slags, it is necessary to use a two-chamber unit. In this case, the organization of mass transfer between the chambers is of crucial importance. ...

One of the directions for the improvement of pyrometallurgical processing is the creation of multi-chamber units, in separate chambers of which processes of a different nature are carried out. Such combined units for ore smelting and slag depletion, conversion and depletion, and smelting, conversion and depletion have been developed in recent years in the USSR and abroad. ...

For the stable operation of a cooled element in a melt, it is necessary to create on its surface a layer of protective garnissage and to ensure that the temperature of the wall of the cooled element is lower than the maximum allowable temperature for the material from which it is made. Under given external operating conditions of garnissage elements, this can be achieved by choosing the structural material of the element, the coolant, and the cooling mode. ...

An increase in the productivity of ore-thermal furnaces (OTFs) for smelting oxidized nickel ores to ferronickel is limited by the intensive wear of the sidewall lining at the slag–ferronickel interface. An increase in the resistance of furnace sidewalls is possible in several ways, for example, by using cooling. A new explosion-proof cooling system — water-air cooling — was developed by the Furnace Department of the LGI and tested on matte melts.

In modern pyrometallurgy of non-ferrous metals, one of the most important places belongs to the converter process, which, along with ore smelting, is the main unit of the pyrometallurgical flowsheet of nickel and copper production. At the USSR's plants, converting is used for the processing of copper, copper-nickel, nickel, polymetallic and cobalt mattes, as well as ferronickel.

The continuous conversion process being developed by the Leningrad Mining Institute together with the Gipronickel Institute is based on top blowing of matte melts in a stationary unit.

The process of continuous conversion of mattes with top blast supply provides for the presence of a slag depletion chamber in the unit, in which the primary slag formed in the blowing part of the continuous converter is treated for depletion.