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Extraction, recovery and characterization of aluminum chloride from Ethiopian kaolin by leaching and crystallization

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Abstract

Due to the global increased aluminum demand, researchers have been working to produce aluminum from non-bauxite ores. Kaolin could be used as alternative raw materials for aluminum extraction because of limited availability of bauxite in most countries. The present work aimed to extract aluminum chloride from calcined kaolin using hydrochloric acid, and investigates the optimum conditions of extraction parameters, viz. acid concentration, solid-to-liquid ratio, temperature and time to maximize aluminum extraction yield. The optimum aluminum extraction yield of 92.6% was obtained at the optimum extraction parameters of 5 M HCl concentration, 0.10 g mL–1 solid-to-liquid ratio, 80 °C and 165 min. The crystallization efficiency of aluminum chloride hexahydrate crystals increased with volume of concentrated HCl. The crystallization efficiency was reached more than 90%. The results of XRD, FTIR, TGA and zeta potential analysis revealed that the extracted aluminum was in the form of aluminum chloride hexahydrate with trigonal crystalline; the hydroxide group band was detected at 2975 cm–1, the mass loss was 75% in the degradation temperature range from 120 to 450 °C; and the zeta potential of aluminum chloride hexahydrate was + 6.38 mV (pH = 4.3), respectively. The morphology of aluminum chloride hexahydrate crystals was irregular shape particles with some pseudo-hexagonal form and agglomerates of different sizes. The purity of the recovered aluminum chloride hexahydrate crystals was 98.4%

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

a, b and c:

Unit cell axes of crystal system

ACHex :

Extracted aluminum (aluminum chloride hexahydrate)

ACHs :

Standard aluminum chloride hexahydrate

Adj. R 2 :

Adjusted correlation coefficient

Al–ECR:

Aluminum–eriochrome cyanine red complex

AMCSD:

American mineralogist crystal structure database

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

AP:

Adequate precision

CI:

Confidence interval

CV:

Coefficient of variance

DLS:

Dynamic light scattering

DSC:

Differential scanning calorimetry

DTA:

Differential thermogravimetry analyzer

ELS:

Electrophoretic light scattering

Endo:

Endothermic

Exo:

Exothermic

FTIR:

Fourier transformer infrared spectrometer

h ex :

Enthalpy of extracted aluminum chloride hexahydrate

h s :

Enthalpy of standard aluminum chloride hexahydrate

ICP-OES:

Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer

Pre.R 2 :

Predicted correlation coefficient

PSD:

Particles size distribution

R 2 :

Regression correlation coefficient

RSM–CCD:

Response surface methodology with central composite design

SD:

Standard deviation

SEM:

Scanning electron microscope

TGA:

Thermogravimetry analyzer

UV–vis:

Ultraviolent–visible spectrophotometer

v/v:

Volume ratio of HCl to solution of aluminum chloride

XRD:

X-ray diffractometer

XRF:

X-ray florescence

Y i,j :

Extraction parameters in coded form

Z :

The extracted aluminum in percentage

ZPD:

Zeta potential distribution

α, β and γ :

Unit cell angles of crystal system

β i,:

Linear coefficients in the model

β ij :

The quadratic coefficients in the model

β j :

Interactions coefficients in the model

θ :

Angle of peak position

λ :

Wavelength of X-ray source

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank Addis Ababa Science and Technology University to allow experimental works and analytical instruments for characterization.

Funding

No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, P.O.Box 16417, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Adamu Esubalew Kassa & Belachew Zegale Tizazu

  2. School of Chemical and Bio-Engineering, Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Addis Ababa University, P.O.Box 385, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Nurelegne Tefera Shibeshi

Authors
  1. Adamu Esubalew Kassa
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  2. Nurelegne Tefera Shibeshi
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  3. Belachew Zegale Tizazu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by AEK, NTS and BZT. The first draft of the manuscript was written by AEK, and all authors commented on the draft versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nurelegne Tefera Shibeshi.

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Kassa, A.E., Shibeshi, N.T. & Tizazu, B.Z. Extraction, recovery and characterization of aluminum chloride from Ethiopian kaolin by leaching and crystallization. Chem. Pap. 76, 5087–5103 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-022-02241-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-022-02241-w

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