Hydrometallurgy 140 (2013) 1419

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Hydrometallurgy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/hydromet

Alumina extraction from high-alumina ladle furnace rening slag

Yun Zhou, Liushun Wu , Jue Wang, Haichuan Wang, Yuanchi Dong
School of Metallurgy and Resources, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, 243002 Anhui, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Sodium carbonate solution was used to leach alumina from ladle furnace rening slag. The parameters studied were slag particle size, leaching temperature, leaching time, sodium carbonate concentration and liquid:solid ratio. The parameters had signicant effects on the leaching efciency of alumina. For the following leaching conditions: particle sizes between 48 to 63 m, leaching temperature of 358 K, a leaching time of 2 h, sodium carbonate concentration of 10% and a liquid:solid ratio of 8, the leaching efciency of alumina was 78.4%. The leach solution was puried to remove calcium, iron, and silicate ions. The puried leach solution was treated by carbonation to precipitate Al(OH)3, and the Al(OH)3 was then dried at 383 K for 4 h. Finally, Al2O3 with a purity of 98.5% was obtained by calcination of Al(OH)3 at 1473 K for 2 h. Based on laboratory work, a circulatory alkaline extracting method could be developed to prepare Al2O3 from high-alumina LF rening slag. 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 14 December 2012 Received in revised form 3 August 2013 Accepted 12 August 2013 Available online 27 August 2013 Keywords: Leaching Alumina Ladle furnace rening slag Extractive metallurgy

1. Introduction Alumina is an important metallurgical resource. Most alumina is used for extracting aluminium, and a small fraction is used to produce refractories and ceramics (Kibby and Barlay, 1981). As alumina is derived from bauxite, environmental conservation concerns and the development of a recycling culture in global economies, researchers are trying to nd methods for the use of solid waste with high alumina contents (Chen et al., 2003; Kelmers et al., 1982; Seidel and Zimmels, 1998; Shemi et al., 2012; Wu et al., 2012). These researchers developed many processes for extracting alumina from solid waste, such as: the acid leaching method (Bai et al., 2011; Bazin et al., 2007; Dash et al., 2008; Nayak and Panda, 2010), the lime-soda sintering method (Bai et al., 2010; Padilla and Sohn, 1983), and the lime sintering method (Lu et al., 2003). For coal y ash (see chemical composition in Table 1), the essence of the limestone sintering method is that silicates in coal y ash combine with calcium oxide to form a stable compound: 2CaOSiO2, and alumina in coal y ash combines with calcium oxide to generate calcium aluminate (12CaO7Al2O3) with higher reactivity in the sintering process. The chalking clinker is immersed in sodium carbonate solution for some time. During leaching, 2CaOSiO2, 4CaOAl2O3Fe2O3 and other compounds with lower activity remain as residues and calcium aluminate turns into NaAlO2 in solution (Padilla and Sohn, 1985a, 1985b). For the steelmaking industry, aluminium is an important deoxidizer. In the process of de-oxidation, aluminium combines with oxygen dissolved in liquid steel to generate alumina, then it combines with the calcium oxide in molten steel or slag, forming calcium aluminate

(12CaO7Al2O3 and 3CaOAl2O3). Thus, calcium aluminate is the main mineral phase in ladle furnace (LF) rening slag (see chemical composition in Table 2), accounting for about 80% by mass of LF rening slag. Compared with coal y ash, the alumina content in LF rening slag is higher, and most of the alumina in LF rening slag is in the form of calcium aluminate, which renders the limestone sintering process acceptable (Viktor et al., 1997). In addition, the types of impurity in LF rening slag are relatively fewer than those in coal y ash (Wang et al., 2003). This makes it possible for alumina to be directly extracted from LF rening slag by sodium carbonate solution leaching. Moreover, the LF rening process is widely adopted by steelmaking plants in China. Therefore, a great deal of high-alumina LF rening slag is produced annually, which provides raw material for the present project. In view of the above reasons, sodium carbonate solution was used to leach LF rening slag. Based on existing studies and thermodynamics analysis, the reactions which may occur in the leaching process are (Padilla and Sohn, 1985a, 1985b):
12CaO 7A12 O3 12Na2 CO3 5H2 O 12CaCO3 14NaAlO2 10NaOH

1 2CaO SiO2 2Na2 CO3 2CaCO3 2Na2 SiO3 2CaO SiO2 2NaOH H2 O 2CaOH2 Na2 SiO3 2 3

2Na2 SiO3 2NaAlO2 CaOH2 2H2 O CaO A12 O3 2SiO2 6NaOH

4 CaO H2 O CaOH2 5 6

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 18255519978. E-mail addresses: wuliushun567@gmail.com, liushun@kth.se (L. Wu). 0304-386X/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2013.08.007

CaOH2 Na2 CO3 2NaOH CaCO3 :

Y. Zhou et al. / Hydrometallurgy 140 (2013) 1419 Table 1 Chemical composition of coal y ash. Composition Al2O3 Content (% w/w) 16.535.4 CaO 0.89.4 MgO 0.71.9 SO3 01.1 SiO2 33.959.7 Fe2O3 1.515.4 Na2O 0.21.1 K2O

15

0.72.9

Eqs. (1) to (6) indicate that some impurities would be introduced into the leach solution necessitating its later purication. The process of alumina extraction from ladle furnace rening slag contains four steps: leaching, purication, carbonation, and calcination. The emphasis was put on alumina leaching in this research. 2. Experimental The aim is to extract alumina from ladle furnace rening slag by sodium carbonate solution leaching. The experimental procedures are now described in detail. 2.1. Sample preparation and characterisation Ladle furnace rening slag from Maanshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd was ground by planetary mill. Then most of the scrap iron and ferric oxide were separated by magnetic separator. By screening, four series of samples with size fractions of 96 to 270 m, 63 to 96 m, 48 to 63 m, and b 48 m, were prepared. These samples were used to study the effect of particle size on the leaching efciency of alumina. The samples also were analysed by ame photometer (Type: GC122-FPD) and chemical titration. Chemical analysis indicated that samples with different size fraction had similar chemical compositions; relative errors of Al2O3 and CaO contents were less than 1%, and relative errors of the remaining compounds were less than 5%. Table 2 shows average chemical compositions of the samples. The phases in the slag were identied by X-ray diffraction analysis using Cu K radiation (Type: Bruker D8 Advance). 2.2. Alumina leaching from LF rening slag To study leaching behaviour of ladle furnace rening slag by sodium carbonate solution, a series of experiments were carried out. Experimental conditions were as follows: sodium carbonate concentration ranging from 4% to 12% (% w/w), leaching time ranging from 0.5 h to 3.5 h, leaching temperature varying from 308 K to 388 K, and liquid: solid ratio varying from 3 to 10. The leach residue was separated from the leach solution by suction ltration. The concentration of aluminate ions (AlO 2 ) in the leach solution was determined by EDTA backtitration. The trends of the effect of each parameter on the leaching efciency of alumina were studied experimentally. 2.3. Removal of silica from the leach solution Since calcium hydro-aluminate-carbonate (HCAC) has some special properties, such as low density, loose structure, high water of crystallisation content, and a high dispersion degree for its calcium, it was used as the reagent for silicate ion removal. Different amounts HCAC were added to 1 L of the leached solution (concentration of AlO2: 54.7 g/L, concentration of SiO32 : 0.58 g/L) at 363 K, held for 2 h, and then ltrated. The concentration of silicate ions (SiO2 3 ) was

analysed by molybdenum blue spectrophotometry and the concentration of aluminate ions (AlO2) was determined by EDTA backtitration. With the amount of HCAC increasing gradually from 3.5 g to 8.5 g, the concentration of silicate ions in solution decreased gradually from 0.308 g/L to 0.082 g/L, and the concentration of aluminate ions in solution decreased gradually from 55.1 g/L to 52.5 g/L. Experimental results showed that, when the amount of HCAC was 5.3 g, the concentrations of aluminate and silicate ions were 50.2 g/L and 0.096 g/L respectively. 2.4. Removal of calcium from the leach solution As the main mineral phase in LF rening slag is 12CaO7Al2O3, it will inevitably generate calcium ions during leaching. In addition, a small amount of calcium ions was introduced into solution during silicate ion removal. To prepare high purity alumina, anhydrous sodium carbonate was used to remove calcium ions. Different amounts of anhydrous sodium were added to a 1 L solution that had undergone the silicate ion removal process. After 30 min, precipitates and solution were separated by suction ltration. The concentration of calcium ions in solution was analysed by ame atomic absorption spectrometry. Experimental results showed that, when the amount of anhydrous sodium carbonate was 4 g, the concentration of calcium ions in solution decreased from 0.076 g/L to 0.019 g/L, and the concentration of aluminate ions decreased from 50.2 g/L to 48.2 g/L. 2.5. Removal of iron from the leach solution During leaching, a little iron was introduced into the leached solution. Different amounts of 0.2% non-ionic polyacrylamide (NPAM) solution were added to the solution that had undergone silicate and calcium ion removal to remove iron ions. Experimental results showed that, when the amount of NPAM added was 0.25 L, the concentration of iron ions in solution decreased from 9 mg/L to 1 mg/L, and the concentration of aluminate ions decreased from 48.2 g/L to 46.2 g/L. In other words, the removal efciency of iron ions was 88.9%, and the rate of loss of alumina was 4.3%. The concentration of iron ions was determined by spectrophotometric determination of o-phenanthroline. 2.6. Preparation of alumina At 298 K, CO2 gas (0.8 L/min) was injected into 0.8 L puried leach solution. Meanwhile, the puried leach solution was stirred until its pH value reached 10.6, held for 30 min, and then separated from its precipitate by suction ltration. Finally, the precipitate was washed three times respectively with 400 ml distilled water and 100 ml absolute alcohol. The precipitate was dried at 383 K for 4 h to obtain aluminium hydroxide (Al(OH)3) which was then calcined at 1473 K for 2 h, thereby changing it into alumina(Al2O3). A ow diagram for these experiments is shown schematically in Fig. 1. The research emphasis was on the leaching efciency of alumina from LF rening slag. Leaching efciency was dened using two methods: one based on the weight of alumina in LF rening slag and in the leach residue. W s W r 100% Ws

Table 2 Chemical composition of high-alumina LF rening slag. Composition Al2O3 Content (% w/w) 36.81 CaO 52.75 MgO 3.71 MnO 0.084 S 0.58 SiO2 1.63 Fe2O3 3.98 Trace 0.45

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Y. Zhou et al. / Hydrometallurgy 140 (2013) 1419

Fig. 2. XRD pattern of LF rening slag with high-alumina content.

Fig. 1. Flow diagram for experimental alumina extraction.

efciency in 1.5 h because small particle sizes lead to a larger specic surface area. This larger specic surface area enlarges the potential contact area between sodium carbonate solution and the particles, which accelerates leaching. However, considering the wear, energy consumption, and leaching efciency of alumina (samples with b 48 and 48 to 63 m particle sizes have the same maximum value of alumina leaching efciency), slag with 48 to 63 m particle sizes may be more appropriate. 3.3. Inuence of leaching time on extraction efciency The experiments were performed under the following conditions: leaching temperature: 378 K, particle size: 48 to 63 m, Na2CO3 concentration: 10%, liquid:solid ratio: 8, and a leaching time ranging from 0.5 to 3.5 h. Experimental results are shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen in Fig. 4 that, with increased leaching time, the leaching efciency of alumina initially increased, and thereafter decreased. The reasons for the decrease in leaching efciency are based on the idea that the silica in the slag reacts to form Na2SiO3 which in turn reacts with NaAlO2 to form Na2OAl2O3 1.7SiO2nH2O. Some Na2OAl2O31.7SiO2nH2O reacts with Ca2+ to generate CaOAl2O31.7SiO2nH2O. The two compounds have lower solubility, so they re-precipitate. At the same time, the generation of Na2OAl2O31.7SiO2nH2O causes a decrease in the concentration of sodium carbonate in solution, which leads to the decrease in the equilibrium concentration of NaAlO2 in solution in thermodynamic terms. In addition, the dissolution of the other impurities retards and inhibits

where: 1, Ws and Wr are the leaching efciency of alumina, the weight of alumina in the LF rening slag, and the weight of alumina in the leach residue respectively (g). The other denition of leaching efciency was based on the weight of alumina in the LF rening slag and the weight of alumina in the leach solution: 2 WL 100% WS 8

where: 2, WL, and Ws are the leaching efciency, the weight of alumina in the leach solution, and the weight of alumina in the LF rening slag respectively (g). Analysis showed that 1 was very close to 2, which indicated an accurate analysis. For the sake of convenience, the second denition was adopted in this research. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Characterisation of ladle furnace rening slag As shown in Table 2, CaO and Al2O3 are the major chemical components of ladle furnace rening slag, accounting for 89.56% by mass. The component analysis indicates that the LF rening slag which is used in this study belongs to the CaOAl2O3 slag system (Vassileva et al., 2003). In the slag, the mass ratio of CaO to Al2O3 is 1.43:1, and the molar ratio is 2.6:1. The slag also contains some silica, Fe2O3 etc. Fig. 2 shows an X-ray diffraction pattern of ladle furnace rening slag: mineral phases of 12CaO7Al2O3 (C12A7) and 3CaOAl2O3 (C3A) predominate therein. The slag also contains some 2CaOSiO2 (C2S), 3CaO SiO2 (C3S), etc. 3.2. Inuence of particle size on leaching efciency The experimental conditions were as follows: leaching temperature: 378 K, sodium carbonate concentration: 10%, and a liquid:solid ratio of 8. Fig. 3 shows the variation of leaching efciency with leaching time for different particle sizes. As seen in Fig. 3, with increased leaching time, the leaching efciency of alumina increases initially, and decreases thereafter. As for grain size, the sample with b 48 m grain size has the highest alumina leaching rate, reaching the maximum leaching

Fig. 3. The effect of particle size on leaching efciency of alumina (leaching temperature: 378 K, Na2CO3 concentration: 10%, liquid:solid ratio: 8).

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Fig. 4. The effect of leaching time on leaching efciency of alumina (leaching temperature: 378 K, Na2CO3 concentration: 10%, liquid:solid ratio: 8, particle size: 48 to 63 m).

Fig. 6. The effect of leaching temperature on leaching efciency of alumina (liquid:solid ratio: 8, Na2CO3 concentration: 10%, particle size: 48 to 63 m, leaching time: 2 h).

alumina extraction. These factors result in a decrease in the leaching efciency of alumina. Experimental results showed that, when the leaching time was 2 h, the leaching efciency of alumina was 81.2%. 3.4. Inuence of sodium carbonate concentration on extraction efciency The experimental conditions were as follows: particle size: 48 to 63 m, leaching temperature: 378 K, leaching time: 2 h, solution:solid ratio: 8, and sodium carbonate concentration ranging from 4% to12%. Fig. 5 presents the effect of Na2CO3 concentration on the leaching efciency of alumina. As shown in Fig. 5, with increasing sodium carbonate concentration, the leaching efciency of alumina increased initially, and decreased thereafter (the maximum value was 84.3%). A reasonable explanation is as follows: when the concentration of sodium carbonate is high, initially, much calcium carbonate is generated in a short time, this covers the surface of the slag particles and separates them from the solution this reduces the rate of diffusion of CO2 to 3 the reaction interface and AlO2 to solution. This affects the extent of the reaction between slag particles and sodium carbonate (the slagsodium carbonate reaction is inhibited at the reaction interface and aluminate ions are not released into solution). Consequently, the leaching efciency of alumina decreases. In addition, a high concentration of sodium carbonate also promotes side reactions, such as Eqs. (2) to (4). The side reactions consume some Na2CO3 and NaAlO2,

which leads to a decreased leaching efciency. Hence, it is necessary to adopt an appropriate concentration of sodium carbonate in practice. Experimental results showed that the leaching efciency of alumina was above 80% when the concentration of sodium carbonate was between 8 and 10%. 3.5. Inuence of temperature on extraction efciency The experiments were carried out under the following conditions: particle size: 48 to 63 m, leaching time: 2 h, sodium carbonate concentration: 10%, liquid:solid ratio: 8, and a leaching temperature ranging from 308 K to 368 K in 5 K intervals. Fig. 6 presents the variation of leaching efciency of alumina with leaching temperature. As seen in Fig. 6, with increasing leaching temperature, the leaching efciency of alumina initially increased, and decreased thereafter. A possible reason is because, at lower temperatures, alumina extraction proceeds slowly, so leaching reactions reach equilibriums slowly. In the range of leaching times adopted in this work, the leaching cannot reach equilibrium, so its efciency is reduced. As the temperature increases, the reaction accelerates. However, the temperature increase is conducive not only to the alumina leaching reaction, but also to the leaching of 2CaOSiO2. Dissolved SiO2 reacts with NaAlO2 to form hydrogarnet, entering the residue, which leads to a low alumina leaching efciency. Moreover, the reaction between Na2CO3 and alumina is exothermic, so the equilibrium concentration

Fig. 5. The effect of Na2CO3 concentration on leaching efciency of alumina (leaching temperature: 378 K, liquid:solid ratio: 8, particle size: 48 to 63 m, leaching time: 2 h).

Fig. 7. The effect of liquid:solid ratio on leaching efciency of alumina (Na2CO3 concentration: 10%, particle size: 48 to 63 m, leaching time: 2 h, leaching temperature: 378 K).

18 Table 3 Chemical composition of leach residue (particle size: 48 to 63 m). Composition Al2O3 Content (% w/w) 3.87 CaO 84.7 MgO 3.91 MnO 1.09 S 0.38

Y. Zhou et al. / Hydrometallurgy 140 (2013) 1419

SiO2 1.38

Fe2O3 4.18

others 0.49

Table 4 Chemical composition of leach solution. Composition AlO 2 Concentration (g/L) 54.7 Ca2+ 0.075
SiO2 3

S2 0.312

Mn2+ 0.008

Fe3+ 0.009

Na+ 52.7

0.58

of NaAlO2 decreases with temperature. The two opposite effects would naturally lead to an optimum temperature range for alumina leaching. In brief, in the temperature range 358 K to 363 K, the leaching efciency of alumina is higher, and over 80%. 3.6. Effect of liquid:solid ratio on leaching efciency The following experimental conditions were used: particle size: 48 to 63 m, leaching time: 2 h, sodium carbonate concentration: 10%, leaching temperature: 358 K, and a liquid:solid ratio ranging from 3 to 10. Fig. 7 shows the variation of leaching efciency of alumina with the liquid:solid ratio. As seen in Fig. 7, the leaching efciency of alumina initially increased and decreased thereafter with the liquid:solid ratio. A possible explanation for the variation of leaching efciency is that, on the one hand, high liquid:solid ratio means low viscosity and more chance of contact between sodium carbonate and slag particles, which is conducive to the reaction between them. Besides, a high liquid:solid ratio means a low equilibrium concentration of NaAlO2 and a high equilibrium concentration of Na2CO3, which is favourable for the generation of NaAlO2. On the other hand, a high liquid:solid ratio promotes the reactions of Na2CO3 with 2CaOSiO2 and CaO. Na2CO3 reacts with 2CaOSiO2 to form Na2SiO3 (see Eq. (4)). Na2SiO3 in turn reacts with NaAlO2 and Ca(OH)2 to generate CaOA12O32SiO2 with lower solubility in water (see Eq. (6)). The side reaction results in a decrease in aluminate ion concentration in solution. The reaction between Na2CO3 and CaO generates calcium carbonate (see Eqs. (7) and (8)). The arising calcium carbonate product covers the particle surfaces, which inhibits the reaction of Na2CO3 with the slag, resulting in a lower alumina leaching efciency (Park et al., 2004). The two opposite effects would naturally

Fig. 9. TG/DTA pattern for Al(OH)3.

lead to an optimum liquid:solid ratio for alumina leaching. Experimental results showed that ratios between 7 and 9 were suitable for alumina extraction. 3.7. Leach solution purication Experimental results showed that the leaching efciency was 78.4% under the following leaching conditions: sodium carbonate concentration: 10%; leaching temperature: 358 K; leaching time: 2 h; liquid: solid ratio: 8, and particle sizes between 48 and 63 m. The chemical compositions of leach residue and leached solutions were analysed (see Tables 3 and 4). Silicate, iron, and calcium ions were removed from the leach solution. Then, carbonisation was undertaken, during which process, the variation of pH with time is shown in Fig. 8. Experimental results showed that the pH was directly related to the amount and composition of precipitate. For pHs not less than 10.6, the precipitate was Al(OH)3 and the precipitate amount increased with decreasing pH. For pHs less than 10.6, the precipitates were Al(OH)3 and dawsonite. After carbonisation, precipitates were obtained by ltration and analysed by differential thermal analyser. The results are shown in Fig. 9 in which it can be seen that the Al(OH)3 underwent several phase changes during the dehydration process. (1) When temperature was in the range of 373 to 437 K, an endothermic peak appeared in the DTA curve. At this stage, the Al(OH)3 lost approximately 5% of its adsorbed water by mass. (2) When temperature lay between 523 K and 873 K, amorphous aluminium hydroxide lost 23.7% of its water of crystallisation and thus turned into alumina. When the temperature reached 873 K, this weight loss stopped. (3) When temperature lay between 1073 K and 1273 K, an exothermic peak appeared in the DTA curve because the aluminium hydroxide lost its remaining 0.05 to 0.1 water molecules when temperature changed from 873 K to 1323 K. Alumina was obtained by calcining aluminium hydroxide; the composition of the product is shown in Table 5. The purity of alumina is up

Table 5 Chemical composition of Al2O3 prepared from LF rening slag (% w/w). Al2O3 Fig. 8. The variation of pH in the carbonation process. 98.5 SiO2 0.05 Fe2O3 0.03 Na2O 0.64 LOI 0.8

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Fig. 10. XRD pattern of Al2O3 prepared from LF rening slag.

to 98.5%. In addition, the product was analysed by XRD (see Fig. 10) and this indicates that the product obtained here is -Al2O3. 4. Conclusions Based on these experimental results, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1) The main chemical components of ladle furnace rening slag are CaO (52.75%) and Al2O3 (36.81%); the main phases in LF slag are 12CaO7Al2O3 and 3CaOAl2O3. 2) Under the following leaching conditions: particle sizes between 48 and 63 m, a leaching time of 2 h, a sodium carbonate concentration of 10%, a liquid:solid ratio of 8, and a leaching temperature of 358 K, the alumina leaching efciency was 78.4%. 3) The leach solution was puried to remove silicate, iron, and calcium ions. The puried leach solution was treated by carbonation to precipitate aluminium hydroxide. Al2O3 with a purity of 98.5% was obtained by drying and calcining the precipitate.

Acknowledgements The study was supported by the National Natural Science Funds of China (51074001) and the Anhui Province Science Foundation of China (KJ2010A055). References
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