Cradle to Gate
Identity ID
3662fb19-8ddf-4912-b7f4-88d9b356b0b8
Materials
Associated ID
adf092b2-c51a-4c1f-92aa-e03af9a30ec8
Included activities starts
Included activities ends
Description
Anode copper has high electrical conductivity, good ductility and ease of processing, and is a key intermediate product for achieving high-purity copper production in the copper industry chain; its quality directly affects the performance of downstream cathode copper and end-use copper products. The key upstream raw material of this product is pyrometallurgically refined copper or blister copper, derived from copper concentrate through roasting, smelting and fire refining; downstream it mainly enters the electrolytic refining process to produce high-purity cathode copper, or is supplied as high-purity copper plate for specific uses to industries such as wires and cables, electronic components, heat exchangers and architectural decoration. The system boundary includes sub-processes such as raw material pretreatment, electrolytic refining, separation of cathode copper and anode slime, electrolyte purification and recycling, and the treatment of waste gas and wastewater during production, covering the consumption of main raw and auxiliary materials, energy consumption and the solid and liquid waste generated, but does not include infrastructure processes such as copper concentrate mining, beneficiation, the front-end pyrometallurgical smelting steps, the long-distance transport of raw materials and products, and the manufacture of production equipment and plant construction. The data sources integrate industry average data, on-site measured data from typical smelters and relevant literature, and are formed by merging data from multiple sources. For multi-product steps such as the recovery of precious metals accompanying the electrolytic process, a method combining mass allocation and economic value is adopted to split the data, so as to ensure the independence and comparability of the different product systems. This dataset includes the main raw and auxiliary materials, energy and waste of the production process, while infrastructure such as the manufacture of production equipment and plant construction is not included within the dataset boundary; the inventory is formed by merging data from multiple sources.
Activity Description
Anode copper production uses fire-refined copper or blister copper as raw material, supplemented by electrolyte components such as copper sulfate, sulfuric acid, and water. The main inputs are fire-refined copper anode plates, electrolyte, direct current, and auxiliary materials. The outputs are electrolytically refined cathode copper, anode slime containing precious metals such as gold and silver, and by-products including spent electrolyte. The process flow sequentially comprises raw material pretreatment and cell charging, electrolytic refining, cathode copper stripping and cleaning, anode slime collection and treatment, electrolyte purification and recycling, covering the entire process from raw material entering the cell to the output of qualified anode copper, and includes necessary waste gas and wastewater treatment steps to control environmental load.
Process Description
Sulfuric acid is the product of acid production from copper-smelting off-gas. Sulfur-dioxide-bearing gas generated during copper smelting is converted to sulfuric acid through gas cleaning, drying, catalytic conversion, and absorption.
Time period
2021
2026
Geography
China
Macroeconomic value
Business-as-Usual
Data validation
Yes
Technology
Current Technology