Materials sustainability for environment: Red-mud treatment

Abstract

Bayer’s process revolutionized the extraction of aluminum from the bauxite ores. However, the hydrothermal extraction of alumina is associated with the generation of a byproduct, red-mud consisting of undissolved solids composed of iron oxides, sodium alumino silicates, titania, silica and rare earth elements. The accumulation of red-mud (or bauxite residue) in the world is 30 billion metric tons produced at a rate of 125 million tons per annum (2013). Utilization of red-mud for constructional purposes, wastewater treatment, metallurgical products, and pigments are listed. Metallurgical processing efforts of red-mud to generate various value added products such as pig iron, direct reduced iron slag wool, magnetite, titania, iron carbides are presented in the article.

Key words： red-mud processing; waste management; sustainability; valorization

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