An efficient and environmentally friendly process for the reduction of SO2 by using waste phosphate mine tailings as adsorbent

Yunxiang Nie; Jinfeng Dai; Yidong Hou; Yuanzhi Zhu; Chi Wang; Dedong He; Yi Mei

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121748

An efficient and environmentally friendly process for the reduction of SO₂ by using waste phosphate mine tailings as adsorbent

J Hazard Mater. 2020 Apr 15:388:121748. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121748. Epub 2019 Nov 23.

Authors

Yunxiang Nie¹, Jinfeng Dai¹, Yidong Hou¹, Yuanzhi Zhu¹, Chi Wang¹, Dedong He², Yi Mei³

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, PR China; Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Energy Saving in Phosphorus Chemical Engineering and New Phosphorus Materials, Kunming, 650500, PR China; The Higher Educational Key Laboratory for Phosphorus Chemical Engineering of Yunnan Province, Kunming, 650500, PR China.
² Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, PR China; Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Energy Saving in Phosphorus Chemical Engineering and New Phosphorus Materials, Kunming, 650500, PR China; The Higher Educational Key Laboratory for Phosphorus Chemical Engineering of Yunnan Province, Kunming, 650500, PR China. Electronic address: dedong.he@qq.com.
³ Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, PR China; Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Energy Saving in Phosphorus Chemical Engineering and New Phosphorus Materials, Kunming, 650500, PR China; The Higher Educational Key Laboratory for Phosphorus Chemical Engineering of Yunnan Province, Kunming, 650500, PR China. Electronic address: meiyi412@126.com.

PMID: 31796367
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121748

Abstract

The emission of SO₂ and the disposal of waste phosphate mine tailings are generally regarded as two major environmental issues in phosphorus chemical activities. In this paper, an environmentally friendly and efficient route for removing SO₂ from phosphorus chemical processes by using waste phosphate mine tailings as adsorbent was proposed. It was indicated that the desulfurization performance of the waste phosphate mine tailings was better than that of its raw ore. The characterization analysis illustrated that higher content of CaMg(CO₃)₂ was shown on the waste phosphate mine tailings, which played a dominant role in determining the better desulfurization activity. In contrast, the accumulation of PO₄^3- and H⁺ ions resulted from the dissolution of Ca₅(PO₄)₃F on the raw ore caused negative effect on SO₂ removal. In the typical desulfurization system, the produced sulfuric acid from desulfurization process was used to decompose phosphate mine tailings, and these spent tailings can be subsequently applied as raw materials for the production of phosphorus products. As a result, the present approach can achieve the dual goal of reducing the cost of desulfurization process and recycling the waste tailings, which is of great environmental and economic significance.

Keywords: Environmentally friendly; Phosphate mine tailings; Recycling; SO(2)removal.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't