Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
1. Introduction desired liquor clarity, making the use of starch required as well.
Hydroximated flocculants containing carboxylic and amide groups
In the Bayer process, flocculants are used to aid the separation of
simultaneously induce good settling rates and improve liquor
the red mud from the liquor, as well as to maximize the recovery
clarity, but require high dosing rate. Hydroxamated flocculants
of alumina and soda from the red mud in the washer circuit.
also have positive impacts on liquor filterability, mud rheology,
The use of synthetic flocculants can also help in enhancing the
thickener life and lime consumption. In the recent years, many
production rates.
plants have adopted their use in combination with a traditional
Acrylamide sodium acrylate and hydroxymated polymers have polyacrylate polymer (Jean, 2004). The exact type of floc will
gained importance as flocculants in the mineral processing depend on the refinery and the bauxite source (Kini, 2000). For
industry. They have largely replaced the historically used example, in India, there are four varieties of bauxite, viz;
flocculant like starch. The major advantage of these synthetic
(i) East Coast Bauxite which is highly Gibbsitic and soluble at
flocculants over natural ones is they are cheap, water soluble
low temperatures and atmospheric pressure,
and can usually be tailored (composition and Molecular weights)
(ii) West Coast Bauxite with low Boehmitic and Diasporic
to meet the specific applications
content which can be digested at 145°C at 5atm,
The most recent type of hydroxymated flocculants (Hx) can (iii) Central Indian Bauxite which is Boehmitic which needs high
accommodate a variety of process conditions. They vary in the temperature and pressure,
degree of functionalization and molecular weight, but generally (iv) Gujrat Bauxite being Diasporic in nature, requiring very
the removal of suspended solids increase molecular weight. high temperatures and pressures (320°C). The flocculants
However, higher settling rates are achieved at lower Hx product required for each system are different.
numbers, therefore, a compromise molecular weight is needed
1.2 Factors influencing Flocculant type in Deep Cone
to optimise both settling rates and overflow clarity.
Thickeners
The hydroxymated polyacrylamide polymers are available in the The flocculant activity of red mud and its settling behaviour is
emulsion form and offer the following advantages: influenced by:
• they replace both the polyacrylate and starch to provide • the polymer molecular weight, the polymer composition,
exceptional clarities with high settling rates, • mode of application,
• better underflow densities, • effect of alkalinity.
• more consistent operation of the settlers / DCTs, improved
filtration rates of the overflow liquor. The most common method of disposal of Bayer red mud
generated is by pumping the material to large settling ponds
The inclusion of the hydroxymic acid functional group in the new where waste disposal is permissible. In general, the rheological
generation polymers provides a very strong attachment of the behaviour of mud residue is not only affected by solids loading,
polymer to the mud particles. This strong attachment makes particle morphology and particle size distribution, but also
these materials significantly more efficient than the polyacrylates by particle interactions (Frost, 2007). These interactions are
in capturing the fine particles and also generates large flocs influenced by chemical factors such as presence of flocculants /
which are more resistant to breakage. de-flocculant agents. High molecular weight anionic polyacrylates
are commonly used for the flocculation of bauxite residue in DCT.
1.1 Role of Flocculant in Red Mud Settling
For mud washing, a mixture of acrylate and non-ionic acrylamide
Polyacrylate containing carboxylic groups or acrylate / acrylamide is often used. Most of the published literature on the flocculants
based copolymers induce very high rate of settling and mud for red mud settling is related to the behaviours of the material
compaction. However, flocculants of this type cannot produce
80 35
70 30
SR m/hr
60
25
PA
SR m/hr
50
20
Trial -3
40 Trial -1
Trial -2
15
30 Hydroxymated
10
20
5
10
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 0 50 100 150 200 250
Dosage (gm/T) Dosage (gm/T)
Figure 1. Performance of Hydroxamated and Polyacrylate with different Figure 2. Performance of Polyacrylate Flocculant
dosage
Hydroxymated Polyacrylate
220
OF Clarity mg/ llt
200
180
160
140
120
100
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
SR m/hr
180
170
160
Trial - 1
150
140
130
OF Clarity mg/ llt
120 Trial - 2
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40 45 50 55
% Fraction of PA Dosage
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the management of Bharat Aluminium
Company Limited, Korba, India, for granting permission for
presenting this paper. The authors would like to thank Mr.
Pramod Suri, CEO, Aluminium Business, Vedanta resources plc.,
India, Mr. Gunjan Gupta, CEO, BALCO – Korba, India and Mr.
Sharad Kumar Goel, Head, plant-1, BALCO – Korba, India for
their encouragement during the course of this work.
References
Frost, Ray and Pejcinovic, Nik and Nguyen, Tai, “ Effect of surfactants on Bauxite residues suspensions, viscosity”, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical
and Engineering Aspects, 292 (1), 2007, pp 21-26.
Jean – marc Rousseaux, Benoit Cristol, Stephane Torsiello, “Combination of hydroxamated and Polyacrylamide based flocculants for settler performance
improvements in ADG Alumina refinery”, Light Metals, (2004), pp 15-20.
Kini, A.D, Misra, B.p., Raja, S.M., “Effect of Synthetic Flocculants on Settling and Filtration of Red Mud”, Symfloc (2000), India, pp 145-156.
Lathouras, M., Avotins, P.V., “The Role of Hydroxamated Polyacrylamide Flocculants in the Bayer process”, Symfloc, (2000), India, pp 59-69.