A novel hydrothermal method for zinc extraction and separation from zinc ferrite and electric arc furnace dust

Abstract

A novel hydrothermal process was developed to extract zinc from pure zinc ferrite (ZnFe₂O₄) nanopowder and zinc-containing electric arc furnace (EAF) dust using hexahydrated ferric chloride (FeCl₃·6H₂O) as a decomposing agent. The effects of solid FeCl₃·6H₂O to ZnFe₂O₄ ratio by mass (R _F/Z), hydrothermal reaction temperature, and time on zinc extraction were systematically investigated. In the results, when the hydrothermal reaction is conducted at 150°C for 2 h with R _F/Z of 15:20, the efficiency of zinc extraction from ZnFe₂O₄ reaches 97.2%, and the concentration of ferric ions (Fe³⁺) in the leaching solution is nearly zero, indicating a high selectivity for zinc. In addition, the zinc extraction efficiency from the EAF dust reaches 94.5% in the case of the hydrothermal reaction performed at 200°C for 10 h with the solid FeCl₃·6H₂O to EAF dust ratio by mass (R _{F/EAF dust}) of 15:10. Zinc and iron separation is achieved by adjusting the pH value of the leaching solution according to the different precipitation pH values of metal hydroxides.

Keywords

electric arc furnaces / dust / zinc / extraction / separation / hydrothermal process

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