Study on Magnetization Roasting Kinetics of High-Iron and Low-Silicon Red Mud

Abstract

High-iron and low-silicon red mud is not only an alkaline solid waste from Bayer process alumina production, but it is also a very important secondary iron resource. Magnetization roasting is considered as an effective and typical method for the iron recovery and removal of impurities in red mud. In this work, based on the characteristics of large specific surface area and high porosity of red mud, the kinetics of magnetization roasting and phase transformation of red mud were studied. Thermodynamic analysis results show that the reduction of iron oxide in red mud is more easily promoted by CO as reducing agent at low roasting temperature. The reduction reaction is prone to overreduction, and fayalite and ferrospinel can be formed in the reaction system. The phase transformation and iron reduction mechanism during the roasting process were evaluated. Most of hematite and goethite in the red mud decomposed in the process of magnetization roasting, released CO2, and transformed into strongly magnetic magnetite. The reaction process has some characteristics controlled by homogeneous reaction. The process of magnetization roasting reduction with CO was controlled by the hybrid control dynamics model, and the apparent activation energy was 38.31 kJ·mol−1.