Red mud

Starch is a polysaccharide found in many plant species. Com and potatoes are two common sources of industrial starch. The composition of starch varies somewhat in terms of the amount of branching of the polymer chains (11). Its principal use as a flocculant is in the Bayer process for extracting aluminum from bauxite ore. The digestion of bauxite in sodium hydroxide solution produces a suspension of finely divided iron minerals and siUcates, called red mud, in a highly alkaline Hquor. Starch is used to settle the red mud so that relatively pure alumina can be produced from the clarified Hquor. It has been largely replaced by acryHc acid and acrylamide-based (11,12) polymers, although a number of plants stiH add some starch in addition to synthetic polymers to reduce the level of residual suspended soHds in the Hquor. Starch [9005-25-8] can be modified with various reagents to produce semisynthetic polymers. The principal one of these is cationic starch, which is used as a retention aid in paper production as a component of a dual system (13,14) or a microparticle system (15). 

Aluminum. All primary aluminum as of 1995 is produced by molten salt electrolysis, which requires a feed of high purity alumina to the reduction cell. The Bayer process is a chemical purification of the bauxite ore by selective leaching of aluminum according to equation 35. Other oxide constituents of the ore, namely siUca, iron oxide, and titanium oxide remain in the residue, known as red mud. No solution purification is required and pure aluminum hydroxide is obtained by precipitation after reversing reaction 35 through a change in temperature or hydroxide concentration the precipitate is calcined to yield pure alumina. 

Red mud Production of alumina Minor utilization, rest in lagoons Pigment in paints and plastics... 

At the alumina plant, the bauxite ore is further crushed to the correct particle size for efficient extraction of the alumina through digestion by hot sodium hydroxide liquor. After removal of "red mud" (the insoluble part of the bauxite) and fine solids from the process liquor, aluminum trihydrate crystals are precipitated and calcined in rotary kilns or fluidized bed calciners to produce alumina (AljOj). Some alumina processes include a liquor purification step. 

Production of A1 metal involves two stages (a) the extraction, purification and dehydration of bauxite, and (b) the electrolysis of AI2O3 dissolved in molten cryolite Na3AlF6. Bauxite is now almost universally treated by the Bayer process this involves dissolution in aqueous NaOH, separation from insoluble impurities (red muds), partial precipitation of the trihydrate... 

Freshwater Muds—Dispersed Systems. The pH value of low-pH muds may range from 7.0 to 9.5. Low-pH muds include spud muds, bentonite-treated muds, natural muds, phosphate-treated muds, organic thinned muds (red muds, lignite muds, lignosulfate muds), and organic colloid-treated muds. The pH value of high pH muds, such as alkaline tannate-treated mud, is above 9.5. 

Quebracho-treated freshwater muds were used in drilling at shallow depths. The name of red mud comes from the deep red color imparted to the mud by quebracho. Muds treated with a mixture of lignite and quebracho, or a mixture of alkaline organic polyphosphate chemicals (alkaline-tannate treated muds), are also included in the quebracho treated muds. The quebracho thinners are very effective at low concentrations, and offer good viscosity and filtration control. The pH of red" muds should be 8.5 to 10 mud temperature should be lower than 230°F. 

Quebracho-treated freshwater muds were used in shallow depths. It is also referred to as red mud because of the deep red color. Quebracho acts as a thinner. Polyphosphates are also added when quebracho is used. Quebracho is active at low concentrations and consists of tannates. 

Compositions of high-alumina cement containing quartz or glass, calcium carbonate, microsilica, carbon black, iron oxide red mud or screened fly ash, and styrene-butadiene latex have been described [141,1803,1804]. 

One major environmental problem is associated with the Bayer process for alumina production from bauxite. The residue (called red mud ) which is obtained in the process contains unextracted oxides (e.g., alumina, ferric oxide, titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, calcium oxide) and various insoluble materials. This solid waste is washed and discharged into impoundment ponds or into the marine environment. 

A pipeline is installed to transport a red mud slurry from an open tank in an alumina plant to a disposal pond. The line is 5 in. sch 80 commercial steel, 12,000 ft long, and is designed to transport the slurry at a rate of 300 gpm. The slurry properties can be described by the Bingham plastic model, with a yield stress of 15 dyn/cm2, a limiting viscosity of 20 cP, and an SG of 1.3. You may neglect any fittings in this pipeline. 

The pK of Ca2+aq (204), 12.6 at zero ionic strength, rising to over 13 as ionic strength increases, means that concentrations of CaOH+aq will be negligible in body fluids (lpolluted waters, and under all conditions of biological relevance, from the very low pHs of 0.5 (Thiobacillus thiooxidans) to 1.5 at which bacteria used for oxidative metal extraction operate (205), through acid soils and acid rain (pH 3 to 6), streams, rivers, and oceans (pH 6 to 8), soda lakes (pH 10), up to the pHs of 11 or more in Jamaican Red Mud slurry ponds (206) (cf. Section II.C.l below). 

Bayer A process for making pure alumina hydrate from bauxite, used principally as a raw material for the manufacture of aluminum metal. The ore is digested with hot sodium hydroxide solution, yielding a solution of sodium aluminate. Insoluble impurities are separated off in the form of red mud and the solution is then nucleated with alumina hydrate from a previous batch, causing alumina trihydrate to precipitate ... 

Natural Fe oxides have also been used for water purification. In a laboratory study, a natural ferrihydrite (surface area of 243 m g ) originating from a ferriferrous acid spring turned out to be capable of removing > 95 % of the inorganic phosphate from water with 0.1 mg P L (WeiE et al., 1992). The so-called Red Mud, a waste product of the alumina industry, containing 330 g Fe/kg was also effective, whereas a tropical soil with 80 g kg Fe was comparatively less so (WeiE et al., 1992a). Nine... 

Various well-known industrial and municipal waste products particularly those from the base metal industry, contain appreciable amounts of Fe oxides which may make them suitable for remediation purposes. Two examples from industry are the residues from the alumina and the titanium industries. The extraction of either Al or Ti from the natural ores (bauxite and ilmenite/rutile, respectively) leaves behind an alkaline and acidic (sulphuric) residue, respectively, in which Fe oxides are enriched, as indicated by their names Red Mud and Red Gypsum . A sample of Red gypsum is reported to contain ca. 35% of Fe oxide consisting of goethite and hematite, half of which was oxalate soluble (Fauziah et al., 1996). As expected, this material had an appreciable adsorption capacity for phosphate and heavy metals and, if added to soils, could confer these properties on them (Peacock Rimmer, 2000),... 

Summers, R.N. Guise, N.R. Smirk, D.D. Summers, K.J. (1996) Bauxite residue (red mud) improves pasture growth on sandy soils in Western Australia. Aust. J. Soil Res. 34 569-581... 

Xue, J. Huang, P.M. (1995) Zinc adsorption-desorption on short-range ordered iron oxide as influenced by citric add during its formation. Geoderma 64 343—356 Yamada, K. Harato,T. Shiozaki,Y. (1980) Flocculation and sedimentation of red mud. Light Metals 39-50... 

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