Abstract
The main by-product of the Bayer process is the bauxite residues (BR), a red slurry consisting of the un-dissolved portion of the bauxite ore. On a dry basis BR are produced at an almost 1:1 mass ratio with alumina, amassing to a total of 100 to 120 million tones per year globally. Due the lack of an economically viable processing method all BR are disposed in artificial ponds or landfills. A novel process for treating BR has been developed; Through EAF carbothermic smelting the BR are fully converted into two marketable products: pig iron and mineral wool fibers. No solid or liquid by-products are produced. This novel process has been applied for more than a year in an industrial scale pilot plant housing a 1MVA EAF and a melt fiberizing line. The mass and energy balance of the process, along with a preliminary scale up calculations are presented in this paper.
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Balomnenos, E., Kastritis, D., Panias, D., Paspaliaris, I., Boufounos, D. (2014). The Enexal Bauxite Residue Treatment Process: Industrial Scale Pilot Plant Results. In: Grandfield, J. (eds) Light Metals 2014. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48144-9_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48144-9_25
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48590-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48144-9
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