The Research of the Carbothermic Solid–Phase Red Mud Reduction Process in the Presence of Sodium Sulphate

Russia has accumulated about 600 million tons of the red mud that is alumina production waste generated by Bayer method, but currently only a small amount of the total accumulated red mud is recycled. Solid–phase carbothermic reduction of red mud in the presence of sodium salts with magnetic separation can be a promising method for iron extraction. In this paper, the effect of the addition of sodium sulphate on the reduction of iron–containing phases and the growth of iron grains during solid–phase carbothermic reduction of red mud was investigated. The results show that 10% sodium sulphate additive significantly accelerate the growth of reduced iron grains, but decrease the degree of its reduction at temperatures above 1100∘C. The explanation of mechanism of sodium sulphate effect on the iron grain growth was proposed. Optimization of sodium sulphate amount, temperature and holding time can lead the development of effective technology of iron extraction from red mud by solid–phase carbothermic reduction. Keywords: red mud, solid–phase carbothermic reduction, sodium sulphate