Thermochemical processing of a South African ultrafine coal fly ash using ammonium sulphate as extracting agent for aluminium extraction

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Authors

Doucet, Frédéric J.
Mohamed, Sameera
Neyt, Nicole Candice
Castleman, Barbara A.
Van der Merwe, Elizabet Margaretha

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Publisher

Elsevier Science Limited

Abstract

South African coal fly ash represents an untapped secondary resource of aluminium. Continuous research is conducted to develop suitable chemical and/or geometallurgical processes for aluminium extraction, preferably accompanied by minimal silicon extraction. The thermochemical treatment of a South African ultrafine coal fly ash was investigated to test the feasibility of recovering aluminium using ammonium sulphate, a widely available, low-cost, recyclable chemical agent. The optimum processing conditions were determined to be a temperature of 500 °C and a fly ash to ammonium sulphate weight ratio of 2:6 when a reaction time of 1 h was used. Water leaching of the reaction product obtained under these conditions resulted in the selective recovery of 95.0% aluminium from the amorphous phase, with b0.6% Si extracted. Mullite was unlikely to have reacted with the extracting agent. Except for Si, the process was not element-selective, but the extraction of iron could be minimized by increasing the treatment temperature to 600 °C without compromising Al extraction. Thermochemical treatment using ammonium sulphate may therefore represent a promising technology for extracting aluminium from coal fly ash, which could be subsequently converted to value-added products such as alumina.

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Keywords

Coal fly ash, Thermochemical processing, Aluminium extraction, Ammonium sulphate

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Citation

Doucet, FJ, Mohamed, S, Neyt, N, Castleman, BA & Van der Merwe, EM 2016, 'Thermochemical processing of a South African ultrafine coal fly ash using ammonium sulphate as extracting agent for aluminium extraction', Hydrometallurgy, vol. 166, pp. 174-184.