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Valuable metals substance flow analysis in high-pressure acid leaching process of laterites

红土高压酸浸过程中有价金属的物质流分析

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Abstract

Substance flow analysis (SFA), an analytical tool, was applied to a high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) process of laterites. The results show that although the HPAL process has become the mainstream process for the treatment of laterites, a large amount of solid waste discharge has caused great harm to the environment and restricted its large-scale development. The annual treatment capacity of laterites by HPAL process is 321×104 t, and 300×104 t of high-pressure leaching residue, 10×104 t of sulfate residue, 1.6×104 t of iron and aluminum residue, and 0.08×104 t of acid leaching residue are discharged every year. Nickel, cobalt, and manganese are used as the raw materials for the preparation of a precursor, and the masses finally flowing into the precursor preparation process are 2.70×104 t/a, 0.24×104 t/a, and 0.29×104 t/a, respectively, and the proportions are 77.14%, 75.00%, and 13.12%, respectively. Scandium finally flows into the scandium extraction process is 40.00 t/a, and the proportion is 37.70%. A total of 98.11% of iron and 99.86% of aluminum can be selectively removed by the high-pressure acid leaching. Some recommendations for improving emission control and resource recycling for the high-pressure acid leaching process of laterites are put forward in the conclusions of this study.

摘要

本研究将物质流分析方法(SFA)应用于某红土镍矿高压酸浸工艺。结果表明,虽然高压酸浸工艺已成为处理低品位红土镍矿的主流工艺,但大量固体废物的排放对环境造成极大危害,制约其规模化发展。该高压酸浸工艺年处理红土镍矿能力为321 万t,每年将排放300 万t 高压浸出渣、10 万t 硫酸盐渣、1.6 万t 铁铝渣、0.08 万t 酸浸渣。用镍、钴、锰作为前驱体制备原料,最终流入前驱体制备工艺的物质分别为2.70 万t/年、0.24 万t/年、0.29 万t/年,占比分别为77.14%、75.00%、13.12%。最终流入提钪工艺的超高附加值钪为40.00 t/年,占比为37.70%。高压酸浸工艺可选择性去除98.11% 的铁和99.86% 的铝。本研究结论对红土镍矿高压酸浸工艺的排放控制和资源循环利用提供了改进建议。

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Qing-hua Tian  (田庆华), Bo Dong  (董波), Xue-yi Guo  (郭学益), Qing-ao Wang  (王青骜), Zhi-peng Xu  (许志鹏) & Dong Li  (李栋)

  2. National & Regional Joint Engineering Research Center of Nonferrous Metal Resource Recycling, Changsha, 410083, China

    Qing-hua Tian  (田庆华), Xue-yi Guo  (郭学益), Zhi-peng Xu  (许志鹏) & Dong Li  (李栋)

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  1. Qing-hua Tian  (田庆华)
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Contributions

The overarching research goals were developed by TIAN Qing-hua and GUO Xue-yi. DONG Bo performed the experiments and collected the data. WANG Qing-ao and XU Zhi-peng analyzed the measured data and the calculated results. The research activity planning and execution were managed by LI Dong. The initial draft of the manuscript was written by TIAN Qing-hua and DONG Bo. GUO Xue-yi and XU Zhi-peng reviewed and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xue-yi Guo  (郭学益) or Zhi-peng Xu  (许志鹏).

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Conflict of interest

TIAN Qing-hua, DONG Bo, GUO Xue-yi, WANG Qing-ao, XU Zhi-peng, LI Dong declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Foundation item: Project(2019YFC1907402) supported by the National Key R&D Program of China; Projects(51922108, 52074363) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Project(2019JJ20031) supported by the Hunan Natural Science Foundation, China; Project(2019SK2061) supported by the Hunan Key Research and Development Program, China

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Tian, Qh., Dong, B., Guo, Xy. et al. Valuable metals substance flow analysis in high-pressure acid leaching process of laterites. J. Cent. South Univ. 30, 1776–1786 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-023-5356-y

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