Authors
Hood-GD; Wilemon-GM; Stanley-DA; Scheiner-BJ
Source
Recycle and secondary recovery of metals: proceedings of the International Symposium on Recycle and Secondary Recovery of Metals and the Fall Extractive and Process Metallurgy Meeting, December 1-4, 1985, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Taylor PR, Sohn HY, Jarrett N, eds. Warrendale, PA: Metallurgical Society, 1987 Feb; :655-664
Abstract
A solid-liquid separation technique devised by the Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior, was applied to red mud, the caustic-containing residue generated when alumina is extracted from bauxite by the Bayer process. Red mud obtained from Jamaican bauxite was dewatered in laboratory batch tests and small-scale continuous tests to develop an inexpensive method of washing the mud and recovering the valuable sodium aluminate and caustic. A number of high-molecular-weight polymers were evaluated, and a high-anionic powder polymer used in combination with a high-anionic, emulsion-type polymer proved to be most effective. In small-scale continuous tests using a baffled tube mixer to aid floc formation and a rotating trommel to dewater the solids, slurries with an initial concentration of 10 pct solids were dewatered to 27 pct solids using 0.20 Kg of polymer per ton of dry solids. After the trommel treatment, the flocculated red mud was placed in a column fitted with a screen to allow released water to drain; after 15 days, the solids content increased over 40 pct.
Keywords
Metals; Metallurgy; Metallurgical-processes; Waste-treatment
Document Type
OP; Conference/Symposia Proceedings
Editors
Taylor-PR; Sohn-HY; Jarrett-N
Source Name
Recycle and secondary recovery of metals: proceedings of the International Symposium on Recycle and Secondary Recovery of Metals and the Fall Extractive and Process Metallurgy Meeting, December 1-4, 1985, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
