Dispersion Behavior of Blast Furnace Sludge for Valuable Metal Recovery

Abstract

Blast furnace sludge, which comes from the iron making process, contains many valuable materials including iron, carbon, and zinc, etc. Because a cohesive agent is added during filtration, fine sludge particles are agglomerated together. Therefore, This makes it necessary to disperse the sludge in solution before separating or recovering valuable materials. In this study, the effects of solid/liquid (g/L) ratio, ultrasonic dispersion conditions, the pH of solvent, and the concentration of dispersant on the dispersion of sludge were investigated by measuring the interfacial properties (zeta potential and hydrodynamic size) of sludge particles. High absolute value of zeta potential and small hydrodynamic size suggests that the sludge particles in the solution presents good dispersion. The absolute value of zeta potential increased gradually at high solid/liquid ratio and ultrasonic dispersion intensity. But when the sludge in solution was dispersed for more than 30 minutes, the absolute value of the zeta potential decreased due to increasing contact and interaction between the particles. Optimal dispersion operations were conducted and when the pH of the solution was adjusted to 11, the zeta potential value was measured to be -44.8 mV. This means that the sludge formed the most stable dispersed phase. The lowest zeta potential was measured to be -46.4 mV with the addition of sodium hexametaphosphate (NaPO3)6 in the solution. It is thought that the sodium hexametaphosphate reduced ionic strength by removing alkali metal ions from the solution of sludge.