Recovery of alkali and alumina from Bayer red mud by the calcification–carbonation method

Red mud produced in the Bayer process is a hazardous solid waste because of its high alkalinity; however, it is rich in valuable components such as titanium, iron, and aluminum. In this study, a novel calcification-carbonation method was developed to recover alkali and alumina from Bayer red mud under mild reaction conditions. Batch experiments were performed to evaluate the potential effects of im- portant parameters such as temperature, amount of CaO added, and CO2 partial pressure on the recovery of alkali and alumina. The results showed that 95.2% alkali and 75.0% alumina were recovered from red mud with decreases in the mass ratios of Na2O to Fe2O3 and of Al2O3 to Fe2O3 from 0.42 and 0.89 to 0.02 and 0.22, respectively. The processed red mud with less than 0.5wt% Na2O can potentially be used as a construction material.

Extraction of vanadium from vanadium slag by high pressure oxidative acid leaching

To extract vanadium in an environment friendly manner, this study focuses on the process of leaching vanadium from vanadium slag by high pressure oxidative acid leaching. Characterizations of the raw slag, mineralogy transformation, and the form of leach residues were made by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The result shows that the vana-dium slag is composed of major phases of fayalite, titanomagnetite, and spinel. During the high pressure oxidative acid leaching process, the fayalite and spinel phases are gradually decomposed by sulfuric acid, causing the release of vanadium and iron in the solution. Meanwhile, unreacted silicon and titanium are enriched in the leach residues. With the initial concentration of sulfuric acid at 250 g·L^-1, a leaching tem-perature of 140℃, a leaching time of 50 min, a liquid-solid ratio of 10：1 mL·g^-1, and oxygen pressure at 0.2 MPa, the leaching rate of vana-dium reaches 97.69%.

Variation law of gas holdup in an autoclave during the pressure leaching process by using a mixed-flow agitator

The multiphase reaction process of pressure leaching is mainly carried out in the liquid phase. Therefore, gas holdup is essential for the gas–liquid–solid phase reaction and the extraction rate of valuable metals. In this paper, a transparent quartz autoclave, a six blades disc turbine-type agitator, and a high-speed camera were used to investigate the gas holdup of the pressure leaching process. Furthermore, experiments determining the effects of agitation rate, temperature, and oxygen partial pressure on gas holdup were carried out. The results showed that when the agitation rate increased from 350 to 600 r/min, the gas holdup increased from 0.10% to 0.64%. When the temperature increased from 363 to 423 K, the gas holdup increased from 0.14% to 0.20%. When the oxygen partial pressure increased from 0.1 to 0.8 MPa, the gas holdup increased from 0.13% to 0.19%. A similar criteria relationship was established by Homogeneous Principle and Buckingham's theorem. Comprehensively, empirical equation of gas holdup was deduced on the basis of experimental data and the similarity theory, where the criterion equation was determined as ε=4.54×10^(-11)n^(3.65)T^(2.08)P_g^(0.18). It can be seen from the formula that agitation rate made the most important impact on gas holdup in the pressure leaching process using the mixed-flow agitator.

Kinetics of carbonated decomposition of hydrogarnet with different silica saturation coefficients

Carbonated decomposition of hydrogarnet is one of the vital reactions of the calcification–carbonation method,which is designed to dispose of low-grade bauxite and Bayer red mud and is a novel eco-friendly method.In this study,the effect of the silica saturation coefficient(x)on the carbonation of hydrogarnet was investigated from the kinetic perspective.The results indicated that the carbonation of hydrogarnets with different x values(x=0.27,0.36,0.70,and 0.73)underwent two stages with significantly different rates,and the kinetic mechanisms of the two stages can be described by the kinetic functions R3 and D3.The apparent activation energies at Stages 1 and 2 were 41.96–81.64 and 14.80–34.84 kJ/mol,respectively.Moreover,the corresponding limiting steps of the two stages were interfacial chemical reaction and diffusion.