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Hydrogen Reduction of Red Mud for Extraction of Metallic Values

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Abstract

The current study investigates hydrogen reduction of red mud followed by acid leaching to recover the valuable elements. The key objective is to reduce the hematite to metallic iron and consequently distort the interlocked structure of red mud. Reduction at 450 °C results in formation of magnetite with ~ 10% Fe metallization in 30 min, and increment in the temperature to 900 ºC results in 97% Fe metallization in 120 min. The metallic Fe particles possess characteristic spherical morphology. Gibbsite is dehydroxylated to alumina, and anatase (TiO2) is partially reduced to Ti2O3 above 750 °C. The H2SO4 leaching yielded higher dissolution of elements compared to HCl leaching of hydrogen-reduced product. Reduction at higher temperatures (750–900 °C) improves the dissolution of Fe and Ga but deteriorates for Sc, Al, and Ti. Sc is hosted by the anatase phase confirmed by the SEM mapping of feed/reduced products and a strong correlation between the dissolution values of Sc and Ti. Hydrogen reduction at 900 °C for 30 min with 0.5 L/min H2 flowrate followed by H2SO4 leaching (2 M, 2 h, 80 °C) results in 90% Fe, 95% Ga, and 54% Sc dissolution. The final residue contains TiO2, Al2O3, and FeTiO3 phases with 42 wt% TiO2 having yield of 35%. The leach solution contains 7.1 ppm Sc, 15.9 ppm Ga, 1.74 g/L Al, and 11.4 g/L Fe, which can be used for Sc and Ga recovery after Fe removal. The hydrogen reduction is attractive compared to carbothermal reduction because of low temperature (600–900 °C), less reductant use (107 g H2/kg red mud) and restricting fayalite and hercynite formation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Faculty Initiation grant (FIG-100714) by the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India.

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  1. Microwave Processing Laboratory, Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, IIT-Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India

    Shrey Agrawal & Nikhil Dhawan

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  1. Shrey Agrawal
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  2. Nikhil Dhawan
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Correspondence to Nikhil Dhawan.

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Agrawal, S., Dhawan, N. Hydrogen Reduction of Red Mud for Extraction of Metallic Values. J. Sustain. Metall. 9, 386–397 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-023-00655-8

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