Reductive roasting of arsenic-contaminated red mud for Fe resources recovery driven by johnbaumite-based arsenic thermostabilization strategy

Dazhong Yang; Manyu Shi; Juan Zhang; Atsushi Sasaki; Masatoshi Endo

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131255

Reductive roasting of arsenic-contaminated red mud for Fe resources recovery driven by johnbaumite-based arsenic thermostabilization strategy

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Jun 15:452:131255. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131255. Epub 2023 Mar 22.

Authors

Dazhong Yang¹, Manyu Shi², Juan Zhang³, Atsushi Sasaki², Masatoshi Endo²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China. Electronic address: yangdazhong@hotmail.com.
² Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamagata University, Jhonan 4-3-16 Yonezawa, Yamagata 992-8510, Japan.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.

PMID: 36989791
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131255

Abstract

Arsenic-contaminated red mud (As-RM) is a hazardous waste with limited recycling approaches. Generally, through reductive roasting and magnetic separation, RM could be transformed into Fe-rich concentrate for Fe resource recovery. However, due to the poor thermostabilization of As species, reductive roasting of As-RM would cause severe As volatilization pollution together with high As leaching risks from heated residue. Herein, a novel johnbaumite-based As thermostabilization strategy is developed for clean Fe resources recycling from As-RM. We found that in the presence of Ca(OH)₂, the As species in As-RM could be immobilized as thermostable and insoluble johnbaumite (Ca₅(AsO₄)₃OH) at 900 °C, effectively enhancing the As thermostability and insolubility. Introducing 1.5% Ca(OH)₂ into As-RM suppressed the As volatilization ratio from 60.3% to 15.7% during reductive roasting. Meanwhile, the As leaching concentration of the reduced residue was reduced to < 100 µg/L, thus satisfying the Japanese wastewater discharge standard. A concentrate with approximately 67.5% total iron grade was obtained from As-RM through this clean reductive roasting and magnetic separation. Overall, the approach introduced in this work effectively reduces the As diffusion pollution deriving from As-RM thermal reduction, which could contribute to hazardous As-RM reutilization, clean Fe resources recovery, and As pollution mitigation.

Keywords: As thermostabilization; Iron resource recovery; Johnbaumite; Red mud; Reductive roasting.