Vacuum Gasification-Directional Condensation for Separation of Tellurium from Lead Anode Slime
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript titled "Vacuum Gasification-Directional Condensation for Separation of Tellurium From Lead Anode Slime") presents a study on the tellurium recovery from slime by evaporation. This work could be of interest to the scientific community. A minor revision of the manuscript is needed before it can be considered for publication in the METALS Journal.
Instead of 92.71% and 88.18% in the abstract section, please write 92% and 88%. Four significant figures indicate an unrealistic precision. Please correct the percentage to 2 or 3 significant figures throughout the manuscript.
In 2.1. Experimental Materials section, please change "inductively coupled plasma spectrometer (ICP-AES," to "inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES,"
Fonts in equations (7) and (8) should be unified with those used throughout the manuscript.
The appearance of Fig. 7 and Fig. 6 in the manuscript is reversed. Please exchange the figure designations.
Please correct the typing errors in the references!
Author Response
Detailed responses to the Reviewer #1
Dear Reviewer 1,
We have further improved our manuscript entitled "Vacuum gasification-directional condensation for separation of tellurium from lead anode slime"(Manuscript ID: metals-1307983) based on the reviewer 1' comments and suggestions. Revised parts of our manuscript have been highlighted within the document by using the track changes mode in MS Word and written in blue within our detailed responses. Our itemized responses are appended below.
Yours sincerely,
Xiangfeng Kong, Jiafei Yi (Corresponding author)
Reviewer #1: This manuscript titled "Vacuum Gasification-Directional Condensation for Separation of Tellurium From Lead Anode Slime") presents a study on the tellurium recovery from slime by evaporation. This work could be of interest to the scientific community. A minor revision of the manuscript is needed before it can be considered for publication in the METALS Journal.
Response: We are especially grateful that you give us a positive comment on the work. Thank you for taking the time to offer professional and constructive suggestions. We have read your comments and revised this manuscript carefully according to your suggestions.
1. Instead of 92.71% and 88.18% in the abstract section, please write 92% and 88%. Four significant figures indicate an unrealistic precision. Please correct the percentage to 2 or 3 significant figures throughout the manuscript.
Response: Sorry for bothering you with such a mistake. The percentage in the entire manuscript has been corrected to 2 significant figures.
2. In 2.1. Experimental Materials section, please change "inductively coupled plasma spectrometer (ICP-AES," to "inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES,".
Response: We are very sorry for the error. In 2.1. Experimental Materials section, where "inductively coupled plasma spectrometer (ICP-AES," has been changed to "inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES,".
3. Fonts in equations (7) and (8) should be unified with those used throughout the manuscript.
Response: We are very glad to accept your suggestions. The fonts in equations (7) and (8) have been adjusted to the fonts in the manuscript.
4. The appearance of Fig. 7 and Fig. 6 in the manuscript is reversed. Please exchange the figure designations.
Response: Sorry for bothering you with such a mistake. Fig. 7 and Fig. 6 have been replaced with a correct photograph.
5. Please correct the typing errors in the references!
Response: We are glad to accept your suggestions. Typing errors in the references have been corrected.
Revised parts of our manuscript have been highlighted within the document by using the track changes mode in MS Word ，Please pay attention to the attachment "metals-1307983".
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Vacuum gasification-directional condensation for separation of tellurium from lead anode slime is very important metallurgical paper.
Some improvement are required:
Line 18: Gasification results indicated that 92.71% of tellurium was volatilized and enriched into the condenser from TLAS (please to put a temperature and reaction time)
Line 43: inhibit T cells from cytokine production, immunomodulatory activity and .. (what is the meaning of T, please to write full name of "T")
Line 70: Compared with traditional smelting methods, vacuum metallurgical technology has some advantages...Which process is considered in vaccum metallurgical tehnology ("refining Process"; disstilation instead smelting?)
Line 156: Tellurium minerals (better "compounds") in TLAS will be volatilized into the gas phase,..
Line 200: Figure 6b shows the relationship between the volatilization rate of tellurium and distillation temperature. What is volatization rate for other elements: As, Bi; Pb? Is it selective?
Line 255: damage to the environment (and humans)
Line 265: arsenic and heavy metals will only remain in the residue. What is treatment of this residue in order to remove arsenic and have metals? Can you propose some strategy?
Line 269: separated both heavy metal copper, and precious metal gold into residuals. What is with separation of silver?
Conclusion:
Line 279: Vacuum gasification-directional condensation was an important step in cleanly separating tellurium and reducing hazardous materials (such as ...As, Bi,..). Which hazardous materials?
Author Response
Detailed responses to the Reviewer #2
Dear Reviewer 2,
We have further improved our manuscript entitled "Vacuum gasification-directional condensation for separation of tellurium from lead anode slime"(Manuscript ID: metals-1307983) based on the reviewer 2' comments and suggestions. Revised parts of our manuscript have been highlighted within the document by using the track changes mode in MS Word and written in blue within our detailed responses. Our itemized responses are appended below.
Yours sincerely,
Xiangfeng Kong, Jiafei Yi (Corresponding author)
Reviewer #2: Vacuum gasification-directional condensation for separation of tellurium from lead anode slime is very important metallurgical paper. Some improvement are required:
Response: We are especially grateful that you give us a positive comment on the work. Thank you for taking the time to offer professional and constructive suggestions.
1. Line 18: Gasification results indicated that 92.71% of tellurium was volatilized and enriched into the condenser from TLAS (please to put a temperature and reaction time).
Response: We are very glad to accept your suggestions. In line 18, explained under the optimal conditions of distillation temperature 1173 K, constant temperature time 50 min, and system pressure 5-15 Pa, 92% of tellurium was volatilized and enriched into the condenser from TLAS.
2. Line 43: inhibit T cells from cytokine production, immunomodulatory activity and .. (what is the meaning of T, please to write full name of "T").
Response: Thank you very much for your constructive suggestions. T cells are thymus-dependent lymphocytes, lymphatic stem cells derived from bone marrow, differentiate in the thymus, and after maturation, they are distributed to immune organs and tissues throughout the body through lymph and blood circulation to exert immune functions. T cells are also explained in the manuscript.
3. Line 70: Compared with traditional smelting methods, vacuum metallurgical technology has some advantages...Which process is considered in vacuum metallurgical technology ("refining Process"; distillation instead smelting?).
Response: As mentioned in the article, vacuum metallurgical technology is a clean and eco-friendly processing technology, which has the advantages of high resource utilization efficiency, high metal recovery rate, short metallurgical process, low energy consumption, good working conditions, and considerable economic benefits. vacuum metallurgical technology was widely used for secondary resource recovery, alloy separation, metal thermal reduction, and metal purification. For example, reference [13] Guo, X.Y.; Zhou, Y.; Zha G.Z.; Jiang, W.L.; Yang, B.; Ma W.H. A novel method for extracting metal Ag and Cu from high value-added secondary resources by vacuum distillation [J]. Separation and Purification Technology, 2020, 242: 116787; [18] Che, Y.S.; Mai, G.P.; Li, S.L.; He J.L., Song, J.X.; Yi, J.H. Kinetic mechanism of magnesium production by silicothermic reduction of CaO·MgO in vacuum [J]. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 2020, 30(10):2812-2822, and [26] Jia, G.B.; Yang, B.; Liu, D.C. Deeply removing lead from Pb-Sn alloy with vacuum distillation[J]. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 2013, 23(6), 1822-1831, etc.
4. Line 156: Tellurium minerals (better "compounds") in TLAS will be volatilized into the gas phase,..
Response: We are glad to accept your professional advice. Replaced "Tellurium minerals" in the manuscript with "Tellurium compounds".
5. Line 200: Figure 6b shows the relationship between the volatilization rate of tellurium and distillation temperature. What is volatilization rate for other elements: As, Bi; Pb? Is it selective?
Response: Thank you very much for your constructive suggestions. This article focuses on the separation of tellurium from lead anode mud, and other elements are not discussed.
6. Line 255: damage to the environment (and humans)
Response: Thank you for your kind help. "and humans" has been added after the environment of Line 255 of the manuscript.
7. Line 265: arsenic and heavy metals will only remain in the residue. What is treatment of this residue in order to remove arsenic and have metals? Can you propose some strategy?
Response: The residue obtained by vacuum distillation can be collected and subjected to secondary vacuum distillation to further enrich the gold and silver in the residue to obtain a gold-silver alloy with less impurity content, which is one of the directions of the next research.
8. Line 269: separated both heavy metal copper, and precious metal gold into residuals. What is with separation of silver?
Response: Silver is concentrated in the residue together with heavy metal copper and precious metal gold, which makes the gold and silver content in the residue higher, that is convenient for further processing.
9. Line 279: Vacuum gasification-directional condensation was an important step in cleanly separating tellurium and reducing hazardous materials (such as ...As, Bi,..). Which hazardous materials?
Response: The traditional treatment process of lead anode slime requires the addition of reducing agents, solvents, acids, or alkalis, which will generate a large amount of smoke, oxidized slag, wastewater, and waste residues to pollute the environment. However, vacuum metallurgical technology does not require the addition of auxiliary production raw materials such as slag-forming agents, oxidants, and reducing agents, and almost no waste residue, wastewater, and exhaust gas are discharged into the environment during the whole process, and it has little pollution to the environment, atmosphere, and soil.
Revised parts of our manuscript have been highlighted within the document by using the track changes mode in MS Word ，Please pay attention to the attachment "metals-1307983".
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
