摘要:
An improvement in the process for the recovery of aluminum from alunite in which the alunite in particulate form is dehydrated, sulfur and alkali metal compounds removed from the dehydrated ore leaving a particulate residue containing aluminum values, the residue digested with at least one alkali metal hydroxide to convert the aluminum values to soluble aluminates, silicon removed from the soluble aluminate solution, and aluminum values precipitated from the aluminate solution, the improvement comprising: multiple stage digestion of the particulate residue accomplished by dividing the particulate residue into two fractions, digesting one fraction first and using the first stage liquor from the first digestion step to digest the remaining fraction. The fraction digested first may be the one having the smaller particle size, or the one having the larger particle size. The objective is to contact the caustic digestion liquor at its lowest aluminum content (lowest A/C ratio) with that fraction of the residue having the highest extractable aluminum content. The result is the production of a liquor for final recovery of aluminum values which has a higher aluminum to caustic ratio than that produced by prior digestion procedures. The improvement provides a higher recovery of aluminum from the alunite ore.
摘要:
A process for the production of monobasic potassium phosphate from wet process phosphoric acid and potassium sulfate by ion exchange. The application of the process is the production of monobasic potassium phosphate by ion exchange from wet phosphoric acid produced by the reaction of sulfuric acid on apatite rock and by-product potassium sulfate from processes for the recovery of aluminum from alunite.
摘要:
An improvement in processes for recovering aluminum from alunite ore which processes include roasting the ore to remove water of hydration, removing sulfur and potassium compounds from the roasted ore by a procedure including a final leaching step resulting in a residue and a solution containing potassium sulfate, effecting partial recovery of potassium sulfate from the solution by crystallization with some potassium sulfate being bled off from the mother liquor, converting aluminum values in the residue to alkali metal aluminates by digesting the residue with alkali metal hydroxide including a substantial amount of sodium hydroxide, removing silicon from the alkali metal aluminates leaving a waste desilication product, recovering aluminum values from the desilicated aluminates by precipitation, circulating the mother liquor from the precipitation step to digestion as contaminated sodium hydroxide is bled off, the improvement which comprises enhancing the economics of the overall process by introducing therein an ion exchange procedure in which potassium hydroxide for the first leaching step is produced through ion exchange by use of potassium sulfate and sodium hydroxide, a further improvement being the use of the desilication product as the ion exchange agent.