Metso launches digital system for Pierce Smith converter control

Optimizing the operation of smelting plants producing blister copper with Peirce Smith converters (PSC) is typically done manually. To support improved operation, Metso is introducing the PSC Advisor. The new digital tool provides useful information for operators to stabilize and improve the converting process through advanced simulation results.

“Optimization of a PSC batch is a challenging task. Usually, operation is highly manual and dependent on operator skill and attention. To improve performance, operators need to have more comprehensive and quantifiable information about the process as it is occurring. The PSC Advisor has been developed to meet this need,” says Malin Skoogh, product manager, PS Converting.

Customer benefits of the PSC Advisor include better operator performance, converter throughput, process predictability and optimization, plus increased safety and sustainability.

The PSC Advisor uses information from advantageous HSC-Sim process model and combines it with plant sensor data to provide operators with precise feedback and advice throughout the converting process. Metso’s proven and well-known dynamic mass and heat-balance model is at the core of the system and can be automatically calibrated using process measurements and laboratory assay information.

“In practice, the PSC Advisor helps to standardize operation between shifts, predict batch endpoints and optimize revert charging, thus leading to more consistent decision making and operations and improved process efficiency and safety,” explains Skoogh.

The PSC Advisor can be seamlessly integrated with new and existing smelters with Metso’s converter equipment, as well as with other Peirce Smith greenfield and brownfield converters producing copper. Metso provides services with remote and onsite support.

Read more about Metso’s PSC Advisor on the company’s website.