Five key challenges facing pyrometallurgy

Pyrometallurgy is a mature field of human knowledge, which has played a key role of the development of modern technological society. In the 20th Century, pyrometallurgy under went several scientific and technological revolutions, of particular importance was, the widespread introduction of large scale continuous processing, greater process intensity and productivity through developments in gas injection technology, the development of recycling technologies for mass production of high quality products, the development of a rigorous physical chemical description of processes and the introduction of computers in data collection, data analysis, process control and modelling. In the later half of the century, there was increased emphasis on environmental controls and lowering the ecological impact of the various processes, which, in turn stimulated various developments in process design and control. By in large, these developments lead to significant improvements in energy efficiency, productivity, product quality and the lowering of emissions.