Reconciliation of mass and energy data measurements: Application to a rotary dryer

Data collected during the normal operation of a zinc concentrate rotary dry er is used to illustrate the problems associated with the calculation of un measured variables in the presence of measurement errors. The paper analyze s the propagation of random errors through mass and energy balance calculat ions and discusses the presence of systematic errors in measurements obtain ed during the operation of the dryer. The inaccuracy of temperature measure ments in the presence of radiation is discussed, as well as the effect of a ir infiltration inside the dryer. The application of a reconciliation algor ithm to the measured data slightly improves the quality of the estimation. (C) 1998 Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.