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Cyanide WAD Detox (SO2/Air Process): 2D Reactor Kinetics Lab

Tune air flow, SO2/metabisulfite dose, pulp solids and retention time and watch first-order CN WAD decay kinetics drive the tailings pulp toward — or away from — a safe discharge limit, with a live decay curve and reactor visualization.

Chemistry & Materials2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This 2D companion runs the same SO2/air (INCO-style) cyanide destruction chemistry as the 3D plant model, but strips away the walkthrough scene in favor of a reactor cross-section and a live kinetics readout: air bubbles rise through the pulp at a rate set by the air-flow slider, SO2/metabisulfite reagent drops fall in from the top at a rate set by the dose slider, and a shrinking swarm of "cyanide molecule" markers shows the WAD cyanide population being oxidized in real time. A first-order decay curve, CN(t) = CN0·e^−kt, is plotted alongside a red dashed discharge-limit line so you can see directly whether a given combination of air, reagent, pulp density and retention time gets the tailings below the 10 mg/L WAD cyanide target — or falls short of it.

⚙ Under the hood

First-order CN WAD decay kinetics (CN0 = 250 mg/L) with a rate constant k built from three empirical factors: air flow raised to the 0.7 power (dissolved-oxygen transfer), SO2/metabisulfite dose raised to the 0.55 power with a 1.35× cap (diminishing returns past stoichiometric need — the INCO process consumes roughly 4.9 g SO2 per g CN destroyed), and a 1/(1+Δsolids/55) penalty for pulp density (mass-transfer resistance at high solids). Reagent utilization and oxidation efficiency are derived live from the same k and plotted against a 10 mg/L discharge threshold.

cyanide detoxificationreaction kineticsSO2/air processfirst-order decaytailings treatmentenvironmental chemistry

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

Why does raising the SO2 dose stop helping after a point?

The rate factor for dose is capped at 1.35× because past the stoichiometric requirement (~4.9 g SO2 per g CN destroyed), excess reagent no longer speeds up oxidation — it just lowers utilization efficiency, which the readout panel shows falling as dose climbs without a matching air-flow increase.

Why does high pulp density slow detox down?

Denser pulp resists oxygen mass transfer — dissolved air struggles to reach cyanide-bearing particles suspended in a thicker slurry, so the effective rate constant k drops as the solids slider rises, even with air flow and reagent held constant.

What does the 10 mg/L line represent?

It's a simplified discharge/compliance target for WAD (weak-acid-dissociable) cyanide in treated tailings, used here as a clear pass/fail reference — real regulatory limits vary by jurisdiction and receiving-water sensitivity.