Study on hydrothermal mineralization and iron precipitation behavior in zinc hydrometallurgical process
In the process of conventional wet zinc smelting,there exist problems in the removal process of iron by jarosite method and goethite method,such as low iron mass fraction and high zinc mass fraction,large slag amount and high cost of harmless treatment.Therefore,the behavior of iron precipitation by hydrothermal mineralization of iron-containing solutions in wet zinc refining was studied in this paper.The results show that increasing the reaction temperature is conducive to the hydrolysis of Fe3+to form hematite(Fe2O3),while promoting the transformation of the iron alunite phase(MFe3(SO4)2(OH)6)to hematite,leading to a significant increase in iron mass fraction in the iron slag.Extending the reaction time can improve the Fe3+precipitation rate and transform more yellow potassium iron alunite(KFe3(SO4)2(OH)6)into hematite.Increasing the oxygen partial pressure can accelerate the oxidation rate of Fe2+to Fe3+,promoting the formation of hematite.Under optimized technical parameters of a reaction temperature of 180℃,oxygen partial pressure of 0.8 MPa,reaction time of 3 h,and controlled alkali metal ion concentration,94.29%of the iron in the solution precipitates into the slag in the form of hematite,with an iron mass fraction of 57.75%and zinc mass fraction of 0.82%in the iron slag.Compared with the yellow potassium iron alunite process,the amount of iron slag decreases by about 60%,and the zinc mass fraction in the iron slag decreases by 6.5%.The hydrothermal mineralization and iron precipitation process can achieve the mineralization and precipitation of iron in the solution under low acid conditions,leading to the production of iron slag containing hematite that meets the industry standards for iron oxide and can be used for resource utilization,and thus promotes the development of the wet zinc refining industry towards green low-carbon direction.
wet zinc smeltingiron-containing solutionhydrothermalmineralization iron precipitationiron phase control