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A facile method of resource recovery from bauxite residue by phosphoric acid treatment

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Abstract

Bauxite residue (BR) is an industrial waste from alumina refineries. Despite being comprised of valuable secondary materials, utilization of BR is limited owing to its high alkalinity and presence of some toxic constituents. Acid neutralization is widely used as a pre-treatment step to mitigate the problems caused by the alkalinity of BR. In this work, BR was treated with various concentrations of phosphoric acid (1 M, 3 M, 5 M, 8 M) followed by thermal treatment to recover the valuables (metals) in terms of metal phosphates. Phosphates of Al and Si were the main constituents of the residue while the supernatant contained mainly Fe and Al. The supernatant solution was acidic (pH between 1.5 and 1.9) and hence can be used to treat BR in place of phosphoric acid to obtain the metal phosphates as before. The 1 M sample residue showed presence of P2O5 like superphosphate fertilizer. The water leaching test showed insignificant levels of metal dissolution in the 8 M sample, thus exhibiting its ability toward immobilizing the constituents of BR. Additionally, the phosphates can be melted at 1000–1100 °C indicating their suitability for glass forming. Thus, phosphoric acid treatment of BR can result in phosphates that can be used in a range of applications.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Hindalco (Belagavi) for providing the bauxite residue. We would also like to acknowledge the partial support received from Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, through the Grant No. EEQ/2016/000276.

Novelty statement

A simple method was used to recover useful resources from bauxite residue (BR), which is an industrial waste. The method involved phosphoric acid treatment which converted BR into metal phosphates which can be used for various applications such as glass making and fertilizers. It was also demonstrated by a water leaching test that the constituents of the phosphates can be immobilized by the used process thus making them stable and safe to the environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    Kishore Kumar Mayuranathan & Ranjit Bauri

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  1. Kishore Kumar Mayuranathan
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  2. Ranjit Bauri
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study. RB conceptualized the idea, provided guidance throughout the work and contributed in manuscript writing. KKM carried out all experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ranjit Bauri.

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Mayuranathan, K.K., Bauri, R. A facile method of resource recovery from bauxite residue by phosphoric acid treatment. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 25, 2146–2158 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-023-01668-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-023-01668-x

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