Calcium carbonate recovery

Flotation Process for Calcium Carbonate Recovery from Water Treatment Sludges... 

H. A. Dawson, Flotation process used for calcium carbonate recovery from water treatment sludges. Water Treatment Plant Design. Ann Arbor Science, MI, 1979, pp. 105-124. 

In the decanter separation process, it is required to obtain high calcium carbonate recovery, say above 80%, while keeping magnesium hydroxide recovery (in the cake) as low as possible, say below 50%. 

Rotary kilns and, to a lesser extent, Fluo-SoHds kilns are used to calcine a wet precipitated calcium carbonate filter cake in the kraft or sulfate paper-pulp process (15). Lime is regenerated for use as a causticization reagent in recovering caustic soda for pulp digestion. Losses in lime recovery are replaced by purchased lime (see Paper Pulp). 

Obtaining maximum performance from a seawater distillation unit requires minimising the detrimental effects of scale formation. The term scale describes deposits of calcium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide, or calcium sulfate that can form ia the brine heater and the heat-recovery condensers. The carbonates and the hydroxide are conventionally called alkaline scales, and the sulfate, nonalkaline scale. The presence of bicarbonate, carbonate, and hydroxide ions, the total concentration of which is referred to as the alkalinity of the seawater, leads to the alkaline scale formation. In seawater, the bicarbonate ions decompose to carbonate and hydroxide ions, giving most of the alkalinity. 

Calcium carbonate is finding increasing use in flue gas desulfurization. This appHcation by a variety of engineering processes traps the sulfur—oxygen compounds produced in the combustion of coal (qv) (see Coal conversion process Exhaust contdol, industrial Sulfurremoval and recovery). 

Chemical scaling is another form of fouling that occurs in NF and RO plants. The thermodynamic solubility of salts such as calcium carbonate and calcium and barium sulfate imposes an upper boundary on the system recovery. Thus, it is essential to operate systems at recoveries lower than this critical value to avoid chemical scaling, unless the water chemistry is adjusted to prevent precipitation. It is possible to increase system recovery by either adjusting the pH or adding an antisealant, or both. 

In an industrial application dissolution/reprecipitation technology is used to separate and recover nylon from carpet waste [636]. Carpets are generally composed of three primary polymer components, namely polypropylene (backing), SBR latex (binding) and nylon (face fibres), and calcium carbonate filler. The process involves selective dissolution of nylon (typically constituting more than 50wt% of carpet polymer mass) with an 88 wt % liquid formic acid solution and recovery of nylon powder with scCC>2 antisolvent precipitation at high pressure. Papaspyrides and Kartalis [637] used dimethylsulfoxide as a solvent for PA6 and formic acid for PA6.6, and methylethylketone as the nonsolvent for both polymers. 

Tsunogai and Nozaki [6] analysed Pacific Oceans surface water by consecutive coprecipitations of polonium with calcium carbonate and bismuth oxychloride after addition of lead and bismuth carriers to acidified seawater samples. After concentration, polonium was spontaneously deposited onto silver planchets. Quantitative recoveries of polonium were assumed at the extraction steps and plating step. Shannon et al. [7], who analysed surface water from the Atlantic Ocean near the tip of South Africa, extracted polonium from acidified samples as the ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate complex into methyl isobutyl ketone. They also autoplated polonium onto silver counting disks. An average efficiency of 92% was assigned to their procedure after calibration with 210Po-210Pb tracer experiments. 

The inorganic ash from the recovery furnace is then dissolved in water, and calcium hydroxide is added to precipitate out calcium carbonate and to convert the sodium carbonate to sodium hydroxide for reuse. The calcium carbonate is then separated out by sedimentation and is combusted to give calcium oxide which provides the calcium hydroxide which is used in the precipitation process. 

The hrst production step involves recovery of the metal from spodumene. The naturahy occurring ore, alpha-spodumene is heated in a brick-lined rotary kiln at a temperature between 1,075 to 1,100°C. This converts the alpha form to a more reactive form, beta-spodumene. The beta form is heated in a rotary kiln at 250°C with an excess of 93% sulfuric acid. The metal reacts with acid forming hthium sulfate. The kiln discharge is leached with water to separate water-soluble hthium sulfate from several impurity metals. Aqueous solution containing excess sulfuric acid is then neutrahzed by treatment with an excess of ground calcium carbonate (limestone). The solution is fdtered to... 

A CEDI system can produce up to 18-megohm-cm water at 90-95% water recovery. Recovery by the CEDI system is a function of the total hardness in the feed water to the system. In general, 95% recovery can be realized at a feed water hardness of less than 0.1 ppm as calcium carbonate.16 This is typically attained if the pretreatment to the CEDI consists of either 2-pass RO or sodium-cycle softening followed by RO. Recovery that is achievable is a function of the feed... 

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