Periodical attenuation of particles,which interferes seriously the normal alumina production,exists in Bayer process.In order to solve this problem,the rule of periodical attenuation of Al(OH) 3 particles was investigated by laboratory experiments under simulated industrial conditions.The results show that at higher temperature the variation period of particle size is shortened,while prolongs with more solid content.Particle size fluctuation amplitude reduces with the temperature rising but increases with the solid content increasing.Particle size distribution becomes more uniform by replenishing fine seeds,enabling the periodical fluctuation of Al(OH)3 particle size to be attenuated.Combining properly the additives with controlling the seed size is able to reduce the amplitude of periodical fluctuation and shorten the attenuation time.With unbalance of particle size distribution,the particles gradually become bigger,even inducing the decrease of the specific surface area of seeds,which is the major reason causing explosive attenuation of Al(OH)3 particles in seed precipitation process.
Coarse γ-Al2O3 powder was prepared through acid leaching,solid-liquid separation,crystallizing and aluminum sulfate decomposing processes using coal fly ash and concentrated sulfuric acid as raw materials.The metallurgy level Al2O3 can be obtained by disposing coarse γ-Al2O3 powder with Bayer process.The optimum conditions of acid leaching process were determined by experiments.The extraction rate of Al2O3 can be stabilized at about 87% under these conditions.The thermodynamics and kinetics of sulfuric acid leaching process were studied with irreversible thermodynamics.
A new developed technology for extracting alumina from coal fly ash was studied in this paper. In this technology, coal fly ash is first sintered with ammonium sulfate, forming ammonium aluminum sulfate in the resultant product, where alumina can be easily leached without using any strong acid or alkali. The products obtained under different sintering conditions were characterized by X-ray diffractometry. Alumina extraction efficiency of these products was also investigated. The results show that the sintering temperature and time substantially influence the phase composition and alumina extraction efficiency of sintered products, while the heating rate has little influence. The optimal sintering condition is 400 °C for 3 h in air with a heating rate of 6 °C·min-1.Under the optimal sintering condition, the alumina extraction efficiency from as-sintered coal fly ash can reach 85% or more.
