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Study on Kinetics of Vacuum Heat Treatment Process of the Spent Cathode Carbon Blocks from Aluminum Smelters

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Abstract

The spent cathode carbon block (SCCB) produced from the overhaul aluminum reduction cell is regarded as hazardous solid waste because it contains a large amount of soluble fluoride and small amount of cyanide. Coupling vacuum-heating method is considered an effective way to address the issues of such hazardous waste. Herein, SCCB is processed under the conditions of 3000 Pa and 1673–1973 K. The correlation between soluble fluoride content and treatment time was analyzed. The apparent activation energy of the detoxification reaction was calculated based on the Arrhenius equation. The rate-determining step of the detoxification process has also been analyzed in detail. The results show that the detoxification process is a first-order reaction. The apparent activation energy was k = 15.08 kJ mol−1, and gas diffusion was the rate-determining step of the detoxification reaction.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC1908403) and Key R&D Program of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (2018BDE02050).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Ming-zhuang Xie, Hong-liang Zhao, Ze-gang Wu, Wei Liu, Rong-bin Li & Feng-qin Liu

  2. School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Ming-zhuang Xie, Hong-liang Zhao, Ze-gang Wu, Wei Liu, Rong-bin Li & Feng-qin Liu

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Hong-liang Zhao

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  1. Ming-zhuang Xie
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  2. Hong-liang Zhao
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  4. Wei Liu
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Correspondence to Feng-qin Liu.

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The contributing editor for this article was U. Pal.

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Xie, Mz., Zhao, Hl., Wu, Zg. et al. Study on Kinetics of Vacuum Heat Treatment Process of the Spent Cathode Carbon Blocks from Aluminum Smelters. J. Sustain. Metall. 6, 715–723 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-020-00311-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-020-00311-5

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