Abstract
Iron rejection as hematite from hydrometallurgical process solutions appears to be advantageous for a number of reasons. These include its environmental stability, low residue volume, and potential use in the iron making, ceramic, and cement industries. For the design of a process that produces an iron oxide residue with controlled properties, suitable for disposal or secondary use, knowledge of hematite solubility is necessary.
In this paper, the solubility of hematite in sulphate solutions at elevated temperatures is investigated by thermodynamic modelling as well as by experimental measurements. The thermodynamic model, which is based on literature data, accounts for all known iron-sulphate-hydroxyl species present in the aqueous phase in equilibrium with ferric oxide. The model performs temperature extrapolations, incorporates recent thermodynamic data, includes foreign cations, and accounts for ionic strength effects. The experimental measurements are made using a titanium autoclave equipped with acid injection and sample withdrawal units. Reagent grade hematite is loaded into the autoclave, followed by injection of pre-measured quantities of sulphuric acid.
The results show that there is fairly good agreement between experimental measurements and theoretical predictions of hematite solubility within the temperature range of 170–200oC, and 30 – 100 g/L “free” sulphuric acid. The model explains the behaviour of hematite solubility change with temperature and with the addition of zinc sulphate in solution.
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Papangelakis, V.G., Blakey, B.C., Liao, H. (1994). Hematite solubility in sulphate process solutions. In: Hydrometallurgy ’94. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1214-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1214-7_9
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