Abstract
The production of chlorine and sodium hydroxide electrolytically by the mercury process using brine as raw material, creates a solid waste problem. Detoxification of this waste can be carried out by a leaching process with an oxidizing agent in a chloride medium, resulting in exhausted sludges and in a leachate rich in mercury.
In the present study cementation is applied to remove mercury from the leachate by reductive precipitation, using as sacrificial metal — zinc and iron powder.
The influence of the pH and the dosage of sacrificial metal was determinated in two different leachates: leachate A with 196.0 ppm Hg and B with 5.7 ppm Hg.
The optimum pH to operate with iron is less than 2, however with zinc the best result is obtained for pH values between 3 and 6. Since the leaching step operates at pH 8.5 zinc was selected as the sacrificial metal.
Values of sacrificial metal dosage between 1.5 and 146 mol Zn/ mol Hg were tested.
The best results were obtained in the range 30–50 mol Zn/mol Hg.
Other experiments were done using a stirred reactor and a zinc rotating disk.
Parameters such as temperature and rotational speed were studied. The results show a diffusion controlled process with an activation energy of 14.6 KJ/mol.
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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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de Carvalho, J.M.R., Anacleto, A. (1994). Cementation of mercury(II) from chloroalkali effluents by use of Zn and Fe. In: Hydrometallurgy ’94. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1214-7_37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1214-7_37
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