Extraction of Gallium from the Brown Corundum Dust with a One-Step Alkaline Leaching Process

Abstract

Brown corundum dust, which is created during the manufacturing of brown corundum using bauxite as the raw material, is a vital carrier of gallium. To ascertain the presence of the contained gallium, the brown corundum dust was measured and characterized (XRF, XRD, ICP-OES, EPMA, SEM-EDS, etc.). Gallium was extracted from the brown corundum dust using a one-step alkali leaching process, and thermodynamic calculations were utilized to assess the viability of the leaching reactions. The effects of leaching parameters (NaOH solution concentration, leaching time, leaching temperature, solid–liquid ratio and stirring speed) on the recovery of gallium during the leaching process were investigated. A gallium recovery of 96.83% was discovered to be possible with the following parameters: 200 g/L of NaOH, 363 K for the leaching temperature, 60 min for the leaching time, 1:10 g/mL for the solid–liquid ratio, and 850 rpm for the stirring rate. Gallium extraction was negatively impacted by raising the leaching temperature above 363 K and the concentration of NaOH solution above 200 g/L due to the accelerated side reactions between Na+, K+, SiO44− and AlO2−, which led to the precipitation of aluminosilicates that absorbed gallium from the solution. The influences of leaching parameters such as the temperature, NaOH solution concentration, and solid–liquid ratio on the leaching kinetics were examined. It was demonstrated that the leaching process followed the unreacted shrinking core model, that the interfacial diffusion associated with the contacting surface area served as the controlling step, and that the apparent activation energy was 42.83 kJ/mol. It turned out that the final kinetic equation was 1/(1 − α)1/3 − 1 = 4.34 × 104 × (CNaOH)2.12 (L/S)0.43exp[−42835/(RT)] t.