Recovery of titanium, aluminum, magnesium and separating silicon from titanium-bearing blast furnace slag by sulfuric acid curing—leaching

Abstract

An energy-efficient route was adopted to treat titanium-bearing blast furnace slag (TBBFS) in this study. Titanium, aluminum, and magnesium were simultaneously extracted and silicon was separated by low temperature sulfuric acid curing and low concentration sulfuric acid leaching. The process parameters of sulfuric acid curing TBBFS were systematically studied. Under the optimal conditions, the recovery of titanium, aluminum, and magnesium reached 85.96%, 81.17%, and 93.82%, respectively. The rapid leaching model was used to limit the dissolution and polymerization of silicon, and the dissolution of silicon was only 3.18%. The mechanism of sulfuric acid curing-leaching was investigated. During the curing process, the reaction occurred rapidly and released heat massively. Under the attack of hydrogen ions, the structure of TBBFS was destroyed, silicate was depolymerized to form filterable silica, and titanium, magnesium, aluminum, and calcium ions were replaced to form sulfates and enriched on the surface of silica particles. Titanium, aluminum, and magnesium were recovered in the leaching solution, and calcium sulfate and silica were enriched in the residue after leaching. This method could effectively avoid the formation of silica sol during the leaching process and accelerate the solid—liquid separation.

Keywords

titanium-bearing blast furnace slag / sulfuric acid curing / silicon / mechanism

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