International Journal of Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials

Volume 25, Number 12, December 2018, Page 1380

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-018-1692-6

Alkaline digestion behavior and alumina extraction from sodium

aluminosilicate generated in pyrometallurgical process

Bo-na Deng, Guang-hui Li, Jun Luo, Jing-hua Zeng, Ming-jun Rao, Zhi-wei Peng, and Tao Jiang
School of Minerals Processing & Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
(Received: 23 March 2018; revised: 27 May 2018; accepted: 11 June 2018)

Abstract: In pyrometallurgical process, Al- and Si-bearing minerals in iron and aluminum ores are easily transformed into sodium alumino-
silicates in the presence of Na2O constituents, which alters the leaching behaviors of Al2O3 and SiO2. It was confirmed that sodium alumino-
silicates with different phase compositions synthesized at various roasting conditions were effectively digested in the alkaline digestion
process. Under the optimum conditions at temperature of 100–120°C, liquid-to-solid ratio (L/S) of 10:2 mL/g, caustic ratio of 4, and Na2O
concentration of 240 g/L, the actual and relative digestion ratio of Al2O3 from the synthesized sodium aluminosilicates reached maximums of
about 65% and 95%, respectively, while SiO2 was barely leached out. To validate the superior digestion property of sodium aluminosilicate
generated via an actual process, the Bayer digestion of an Al2O3-rich material derived from reductive roasting of bauxite and comprising
Na1.75Al1.75Si0.25O4 was conducted; the relative digestion ratio of Al2O3 attained 90% at 200°C.

Keywords: alumina; sodium aluminosilicate; roasting; alkaline digestion; Bayer process

1. Introduction an economical process of soda lime roasting followed by

With the increasing developments in the metallurgical
industry and the continual depletion of high-quality iron and
aluminum resources in the world, the utilization of the
low-grade iron and aluminum ores have become more im-
portant. The typical resources include high-iron gibbsite
bauxite [1−2], high-aluminum iron ore [3], and bauxite re-
sidues [4−6]. However, these resources cannot be directly
used in the ironmaking industry or for alumina production
because of low grade of iron and alumina as well as the
complex associations of disseminated iron- and alumi-
num-bearing minerals.
To efficiently extract iron and alumina from these re-
sources, selective separation and recovery of iron is usually a
priority. Physical methods such as gravity concentration [7−8]
and direct magnetic separation [9] have been frequently
tried, and they have proved unsuitable because of the com-
plicated isomorphism between Fe and Al. However, pyrome-
tallurgical processes such as the reductive roasting [10−11]
and reduction smelting [12] have proved successful, having
a high efficiency of iron extraction. Liu et al. [13] reported
Corresponding authors: Guang-hui Li E-mail: liguangh@csu.edu.cn; Jun Luo E-mail: luojun2013@csu.edu.cn
© University of Science and Technology Beijing and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018
water leaching and magnetic separation to recover 75.7%
Al2O3, 80.7% Na2O, and 51.2% Fe from red mud. During
roasting, alumina in red mud was transformed into sodium
aluminosilicates with poor solubility in water, which de-
creased the Al2O3 recovery. This result has also been re-
ported in another research where smelting process was de-
veloped [14]. Some researchers [15−17] confirmed that the
reductive roasting process in presence of sodium salts can
effectively facilitate the extraction of iron, as both the iron
recovery and iron content in the magnetic concentrate at-
tained 90%. In these processes, the Al-bearing minerals
were also transformed into sodium aluminosilicates with
different phase compositions. Since iron is separated in the
subsequent process, the sodium aluminosilicates would en-
ter into the non-ferrous products or slags. The sodium alu-
minosilicates generated in this high-temperature process are
distinguished from the traditional hydrated sodium alumino-
silicates derived from the Bayer digestion process of bauxite
ore and always coexist with crystalline water [18−19].
Therefore, research should focus on the extraction of alu-
mina from sodium aluminosilicates obtained from the py-
B.N. Deng et al., Alkaline digestion behavior and alumina extraction from sodium aluminosilicate generated …
rometallurgical process.
The alkali digestion method such as the typical Bayer
process [20−24] is usually used to recover alumina from baux-
ite ores. Thus, to further extract alumina from the non-ferrous
materials or slags derived from the pyrometallurgical processes,
the alkaline digestion behavior of the sodium aluminosili-
cate needs further investigation since it is the domiant
Al-bearing mineral in these non-ferrous materials or slags.
In this study, sodium aluminosilicates were firstly syn-
thesized under different roasting conditions, and their alka-
line digestion behaviors were then examined to demonstrate
the effect of roasting process on the digestion process. Sub-
sequently, the excellent alkaline digestion performance of
sodium aluminoslicates under different digestion conditions
was reported in detail. Furthermore, to verify the effective
digestion property of the sodium aluminosilicate generated
in the actual roasting process, the Bayer digestion process
was carried out on an Al2O3–rich material to extract alumina,
which was derived from the reductive roasting of a high-iron
bauxite ore mainly containing Na1.75Al1.75Si0.25O4.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
It has been proved that iron in various complex ores can
be effectively recycled through reductive roasting followed
by a magnetic separation process [3,15]. The presence of
sodium salts is favorable to the reduction of iron oxides and
growth of metallic iron grains. The Al2O3-rich material used
in this study is a non-magnetic product derived from the re-
ductive roasting and magnetic separation process of an
iron-rich gibbsite bauxite ore. The main compositions of the
bauxite ore and the Al2O3-rich material are shown in Table 1.
The results indicate that iron was effectively recovered since
the iron grade (TFe) decreased significantly from 31.22% to
6.73%. The Al2O3-rich material was mainly rich in Al2O3,
SiO2, and Na2O.
Table 1. Main chemical compositions of bauxite ore and
Al2O3-rich material wt%
Material TFe Al2O3 SiO2 Na2O CaO LOI
Bauxite ore 31.22 26.35 8.32 0.018 0.36 17.30
Al2O3-rich material 6.73 40.56 15.23 22.13 1.94 7.35
Note: LOI—Loss on ignition.
2.2. Methods
2.2.1. Synthesis of sodium aluminosilicate
Pure sodium aluminosilicates were obtained through the
reaction of aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3), anhydrous so-
dium carbonate (Na2CO3), and fumed silica (SiO2) at a high
1381
temperature. These materials were firstly ground to a par-
ticle size of −0.037 mm and then mixed in a planetary ball
mill with a certain proportion. Ethanol was used as the grind-
ing medium, and the mass ratio of mixtures to ethanol was
1:1. The obtained slurry was dried in an oven at 80°C for 5 h
to evaporate ethanol, and then briquetted in a cylinder with
10 mm diameter and 10 mm height. The briquettes were
roasted in a muffle furnace at a desired temperature of
900–1300°C in air. After roasting, the briquettes were cooled
to room temperature and then ground to a particle size of
−0.074 μm for chemical and phase compositions analysis.
2.2.2. Digestion test
The digestion tests were performed in a self-designed
autoclave equipped with six 150 mL stainless pots, with
glycerin as the heating medium [25]. Before the digestion,
the pregnant liquor was prepared by dissolving a desired
proportion of aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3) and caustic
soda (NaOH) in deionized water. Certain amounts of solid
material and pregnant liquor were introduced stepwise into a
pot, which was then sealed and installed onto the autoclave.
Subsequently, the pot was submerged in the glycerin with
specified temperature and rotated at a speed of 30 r/min.
After digestion, the pot was taken out and cooled to
80–90°C. The slurry was filtered and washed with hot water
through a vacuum pump. The filtering cake was further
dried at 105°C for analysis.
The actual digestion ratio of components was calculated
according to the following equation:
β
ε (M ) = γ × × 100 (1)
α
where ε ( M ) represents the actual digestion ratio of Na2O,
Al2O3, SiO2 (%); γ is the yield of the dried filtering cake (%);
β is the content of Na2O, Al2O3, and SiO2 in the dried filter-
ing cake (%); α is the content of Na2O, Al2O3, and SiO2 in
the solid materials before digestion.
As known, the presence of SiO2 will result in a loss of
Al2O3 because of the hydrated sodium aluminosilicate pre-
cipitate during the digestion process. Therefore, the theoret-
ical digestion ratio of Al2O3 is calculated as Eq. (2):
 S 
ε T ( A) =  1 − 0  × 100 (2)
 A0 
where ε T ( A) represents the theoretical digestion ratio of
Al2O3 (%); S0 and A0 are the contents of SiO2 and Al2O3 in
the raw material (%), respectively.
The relative digestion ratio of Al2O3 (R(Al2O3)) is calcu-
lated as Eq. (3):
ε ( A)
R ( Al 2O3 ) = × 100 (3)
ε T ( A)
1382
2.3. Technical instruments
An X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (PANalytical, Axios
mAX, The Netherlands) was used to determine the chemical
compositions of the solid materials. The phase compositions
were ascertained by X-ray diffraction (XRD, RIGAKU,
D/Max 2500, Japan) under the conditions of radiation: Cu
Kα; tube current and voltage: 250 mA, 40 kV; scanning range:
10–80° (2θ); step size: 0.02°; and scanning speed: 8°/min.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effects of roasting process on digestion of synthe-
sized sodium aluminosilicate
Various sodium aluminosilicates with different phase
compositions were synthesized under different conditions in
the roasting process, and the effect the roasting process on
the sodium aluminosilicates digestion was considered by
investigating the alkaline digestion behaviors. The digestion
conditions are Na2O concentration of 240 g/L, liq-
uid-to-solid ratio (L/S) of 10:2 mL/g, the mole ratio of Na2O
and Al2O3 (namely caustic ratio, N/A) of 4.0 in the pregnant
liquor, and digestion temperature of 120°C.
3.1.1. Effects of the roasting temperature
The XRD patterns of the synthesized product obtained at
different roasting temperatures are shown in Fig. 1. At
roasting temperatures above 900°C, Al2O3 and SiO2 com-
pletely reacted with Na2O and transformed into sodium
aluminosilicates. The main phases in the synthesized prod-
ucts were Na1.95Al1.95Si0.05O4 and Na1.75Al1.75Si0.25O4. The
digestion ratio of Al2O3 from these sodium aluminosilicates
was very similar (Fig. 2). The actual digestion ratio was ap-
proximately 65%, and the relative digestion ratio was about
98%. Meanwhile, SiO2 was barely leached out and the
Fig. 1. XRD patterns of the synthesized products obtained at
different temperatures (Na2O-to-Al2O3 mole ratio of 1.2,
Al2O3-to-SiO2 mass ratio of 3, and roasting time of 60 min).
Int. J. Miner. Metall. Mater., Vol. 25, No. 12, Dec. 2018
Fig. 2. Effect of roasting temperature on the digestion ratio of
Na2O, Al2O3, and SiO2.
digestion ratio was lower than 5%. The results confirm that
the sodium aluminosilicates have an excellent digestion prop-
erty despite having different phase compositions.
Furthermore, the alumina digestion ratio changed neg-
ligibly in the roasting temperature range of 900–1300°C
(Fig. 2) despite the sodium aluminosilicates obtained at
higher temperatures were crystallized better, with a higher
intensity and sharper peaks (Fig. 1).
3.1.2. Effects of the mole ratio of Na2O to Al2O3 (N/A)
The XRD patterns of the synthesized products obtained
in different mole ratios of Na2O to Al2O3 are shown in Fig. 3.
Sodium aluminosilicates such as NaAlSiO4, Na1.45Al1.45Si0.55O4,
Na1.75Al1.75Si0.25O4, and Na1.95Al1.95Si0.05O4 were gradually
generated with the increase of N/A. Mainly Na1.95Al1.95Si0.05O4
and Na1.75Al1.75Si0.25O4 were present in the synthesized
products when N/A was higher than 1.0, while a small
amount of Al2O3 was present when N/A was less than 0.8.
Furthermore, the relative digestion ratio of Al2O3 gradually
increased and reached the maximum of about 98% at N/A of
1.0 (Fig. 4); this value did not change significantly with fur-
ther increase in N/A. The actual digestion ratio of Na2O and
Al2O3 also behaved in same manner and reached the max-
imums of 76% and 68%, respectively at N/A of 1.0. The
results indicate that the digestion ratio of Na2O and Al2O3
increased with the increase in sodium aluminosilicates con-
tent in the synthesized products, despite the different phase
compositions. The low digestion ratio of Na2O and Al2O3 at
N/A of < 0.8 is mainly due to the partial transformation of
Al2O3 into an insoluble corundum (Al2O3) in the synthesized
products instead of being completely compounded and
transferred into sodium aluminosilicates.
3.1.3. Effects of the mass ratio of Al2O3 to SiO2 (A/S)
The dominant minerals contained in the synthesized
products are Na1.75Al1.75Si0.25O4 and Na1.95Al1.95Si0.05O4 as
the mass ratio of Al2O3 to SiO2 (A/S) increased from 3 to 7
(Fig. 5), which indicates that Al2O3 and SiO2 have sufficiently
B.N. Deng et al., Alkaline digestion behavior and alumina extraction from sodium aluminosilicate generated …
Fig. 3. XRD patterns of the synthesized products obtained at
different Na2O-to-Al2O3 mole ratios (N/A), Al2O3-to-SiO2 mass
ratio of 3, roasting temperature of 1050°C, and roasting time of
60 min.
Fig. 4. Effect of Na2O-to-Al2O3 mole ratio (N/A) on the diges-
tion ratio of Na2O, Al2O3, and SiO2.
Fig. 5. XRD patterns of the synthesized product obtained at
different Al2O3-to-SiO2 mass ratios (A/S), Na2O-to-Al2O3 mole
ratio of 1.2, roasting temperature of 1050°C, and roasting time
of 60 min.
1383
reacted and were transformed into sodium aluminosili-
cates. The digestion results of sodium aluminosilicates
obtained at different A/S are shown in Fig. 6. Although
the actual digestion ratio of Al2O3 with high A/S is
slightly higher than that with low A/S, the relative diges-
tion ratio of Al2O3 at different A/S was particularly close
and exceeded 98%, which means that the sodium alumi-
nosilicates with different molecular formulas can be well
digested.
Fig. 6. Effect of Al2O3-to-SiO2 mass ratio (A/S) on the diges-
tion ratio of Na2O, Al2O3, and SiO2.
Therefore, it can be concluded that Al2O3 and SiO2
reacted adequately, and they were transformed into sodium
aluminosilicates when the roasting temperature was higher
than 900°C and N/A and A/S of the raw materials exceeded
1.0 and 3.0, respectively. The roasting temperatures in the
range of 900–1300°C did not significantly influence the al-
kaline digestion of sodium aluminosilicates. The relative
digestion ratio of Al2O3 from the sodium aluminosilicates
with different phase compositions are particularly close and
can reach about 98%, demonstrating the excellent digestion
performance of sodium aluminosilicates.
3.2. Effects of alkaline process on digestion of synthe-
sized sodium aluminosilicates
Since the sodium aluminosilicates with different phase
compositions obtained at different roasting conditions
proved to have great and similar digestion performance, the
sodium aluminosilicate obtained under a roasting tempera-
ture of 1000°C, N/A of 1.0, and A/S of 3.0 was representa-
tively chosen to further investigate the alkaline digestion
behavior of the sodium aluminosilicates in detail.
The chemical compositions of the obtained sodium alu-
minosilicates are shown in Table 2. The theoretical diges-
tion ratio of Al2O3 is 68.77%.
1384 Int. J. Miner. Metall. Mater., Vol. 25, No. 12, Dec. 2018

Table 2. The analysis of the obtained sodium aluminosilicate seen in Eq.(5). Due to the generation of insoluble
Chemical compositions / wt% Theoretical diges-
Na2O·A12O3·xSiO2·nH2O in the leached residue, the N/S
A/S N/S and A/S in the residue correspondingly increased (Fig. 7).
Na2O Al2O3 SiO2 LOI tion ratio / %
mNa 2O ⋅ nA12 O3 ⋅ pSiO2 + (2n + 2 p − 2m)NaOH +
34.73 45.85 14.32 3.87 3.20 2.43 68.77
(3n + m)H 2O = 2nNaAl(OH) 4 + pNa 2 [H 2SiO4 ] (4)
3.2.1. Effects of digestion temperature xNa 2 [H 2SiO4 ] + 2NaAl(OH) 4 + ( n − 4)H 2O =
The effects of digestion temperature on the digestion of Na 2O ⋅ A12 O3 ⋅ xSiO2 ⋅ nH 2O + 2 xNaOH (5)
sodium aluminosilicate were investigated under fixed condi- 3.2.2. Effects of caustic ratio and Na2O concentration in
tions: Na2O concentration of 240 g/L, caustic ratio (N/A) of pregnant liquor
3.0, L/S of 10:2 mL/g, and digestion time of 60 min. The The effects of caustic ratio and Na2O concentration in
results are shown in Fig. 7. pregnant liquor on the digestion of sodium aluminosilicate
The digestion ratios of Al2O3 and Na2O slightly increased were studied. The constant conditions were fixed at L/S of
with the prolonged digestion temperature, and then started 10:2 mL/g, digestion temperature of 120°C, and leaching
decreasing at temperatures above 100°C. The change in the time of 60 min. The results are shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9.
relative digestion ratio of Al2O3 was negligible (< 5%) in the At a caustic ratio range of 1.2–4.0, the digestion of Na2O
whole range of experiment. The digestion reaction can be and SiO2 decreased with the increase in caustic ratio at dif-
described as Eq. (4). ferent Na2O concentrations. The digestion of Al2O3 also de-
Meanwhile, the digestion ratio of SiO2 gradually reduced creased at high Na2O concentrations (> 180 g/L), while the
with the increase of digestion temperature, indicating that value improved with the increase of caustic ratio at a low
the reaction of NaAl(OH)4 with Si-bearing constituents Na2O concentration (120 g/L). It is evident that at the caus-
formed insoluble Na2O·A12O3·xSiO2·nH2O in solution, as tic ratio range of 1.2–4.0, the digestion ratio of Na2O, Al2O3,

Fig. 7. Effect of temperature on (a) the digestion ratio of Na2O, Al2O3, and SiO2 and on (b) the Al2O3-to-SiO2 mass ratio (A/S) and
Na2O-to-SiO2 mass ratio (N/S) of leached residue.

Fig. 8. Effect of caustic ratio and Na2O concentration in pregnant liquor on the digestion of (a) Al2O3 and (b) Na2O, SiO2.
B.N. Deng et al., Alkaline digestion behavior and alumina extraction from sodium aluminosilicate generated … 1385

Fig. 9. Effect of caustic ratio and Na2O concentration in pregnant liquor on (a) Al2O3-to-SiO2 mass ratio (A/S) and (b)
Na2O-to-Al2O3 mass ratio (N/S) of leached residue.

and SiO2 at high Na2O concentrations was higher than that
at low Na2O concentrations. When the caustic ratio ex-
ceeded 4.0, the digestion ratios of Na2O, SiO2, and Al2O3
showed no further changes, and there was no obvious dif-
ference in the digestion of Na2O, SiO2, and Al2O3 at differ-
ent Na2O concentrations.
The results in Fig. 9 indicate that the A/S of leached re-
sidue gradually reduced to the minimum (1.0) with in-
crease in caustic ratio from 1.2 to 4.0, and remained con-
stant afterwards. The N/S of leached residue was not sig-
nificantly changed in the whole experiment and was most-
ly in the range of 0.6–0.75. These results confirm that so-
dium aluminosilicates can be excellently digested with
high digestion ratio of Al2O3 and a low digestion ratio of
SiO2, as the caustic ratio was above 4 even at a low Na2O
concentration.
3.2.3. Effects of liquid-to-solid ratio
The effect of L/S on the digestion of sodium aluminosi-
licate were studied, and the results are shown in Fig. 10. The
constant conditions were Na2O concentration of 240 g/L,
caustic ratio of 4.0, digestion temperature of 120°C, and
time of 60 min.
The digestion ratios of Na2O, Al2O3, and SiO2 increased
with an increase of L/S, and reached the maximum values of
67.24%, 74.18%, and 7.35%, respectively, at an L/S of 10:2
mL/g. Conversely, the N/S and A/S of leached residues
gradually decreased and reached the minimum of 0.65 and
1.03, respectively, at L/S of 10:2 mL/g. Thus, improving
L/S is favorable for sodium aluminosilicate decomposition
and alumina extraction.
3.2.4. Effects of leaching time
The effect of digestion time on the digestion of sodium
aluminosilicate was investigated. The constant conditions
were fixed at Na2O concentration of 240 g/L, L/S of 10:2
mL/g, caustic ratio of 4.0, and digestion temperature of
120°C.
Sodium aluminosilicate was well digested at a relatively
fast speed (Fig. 11) since the digestions of Na2O and Al2O3
attained 75% and 65% at a leaching time of only 15 min
when the relative digestion ratio of Al2O3 was about 95%.

Fig. 10. Effect of liquid-to-solid ratio on (a) the digestion of Na2O, Al2O3 and SiO and on (b) the Al2O3-to-SiO2 mass ratio (A/S) and
Na2O-to-Al2O3 mass ratio (N/S) of leached residue.
1386
Fig. 11. Effect of leaching time on (a) the digestion of Na2O, Al2O3, and SiO2 and on (b) the Al2O3-to-SiO2 mass ratio (A/S) and
Na2O-to-Al2O3 mass ratio (N/S) of leached residue.
After that, there was no further increase of the digestion ra-
tio of Na2O, Al2O3, and SiO2 with prolonged leaching time.
Correspondingly, the A/S and N/S of the leached residues
were approximately 1.1 and 0.6 in the whole range of the
experiment. The sodium aluminosilicate was rapidly de-
composed in the alkaline digestion process, which resulted
in the high digestion ratio of alumina in a short leaching
time period.
The above results confirm that the synthesized sodium
aluminosilicates can be digested with high extraction ratio
of alumina under the appropriate conditions of digestion
temperature of 100–120°C, Na2O concentration of 180–240
g/L, caustic ratio of above 4, and L/S of 10:2 mL/g.
3.3. Validation on Bayer digestion of an Al2O3-rich ma-
terial
To further confirm the digestion property of the sodium
aluminosilicates produced in the actual roasting process, the
Bayer digestion was conducted on an Al2O3-rich material,
Fig. 12. XRD patterns of (a) the Al2O3-rich material and (b) the leached residues of Bayer digestion process.
The main chemical compositions of the leached residues
and leachate are shown in Table 3 and Table 4, respectively.
Int. J. Miner. Metall. Mater., Vol. 25, No. 12, Dec. 2018
which was derived from the reductive roasting process
(roasting temperature of 1050 °C) of a bauxite ore and mainly
consisting of sodium aluminosilicate of Na1.75Al1.75Si0.25O4, as
shown in Fig. 12(a). The digestion conditions are Na2O
concentration of 220 g/L, caustic ratio of 3, digestion time
of 60 min, L/S of 10:3 mL/g, and CaO mass ratio of 6%.
The actual digestion ratio and relative digestion ratio of
Al2O3 attained about 56% and 90%, respectively, at a tem-
perature of 200°C, and increased to 61% and 98% at 260°C
(Fig. 13). The results also demonstrate the excellent alkaline
digestion property of sodium aluminosilicates. The XRD
patterns of the leached residues (Fig. 12(b)) show diffraction
peaks of Ca2Al2SiO4(OH)8. This phenomenon is due to the
reaction of CaO with the dissolved Si-bearing constituents
in leachate, which further facilitates the desiliconization of
leachate, as described in Eq. (6):
2NaAl ( OH )4 + Na 2 [ H 2SiO 4 ] + 3CaO + H 2O =
Ca 3Al 2SiO4 ( OH )8 + 4NaOH (6)
Al2O3 and Na2O were effectively leached out, and the con-
tents of Al2O3 and Na2O in Al2O3-rich material greatly re-
B.N. Deng et al., Alkaline digestion behavior and alumina extraction from sodium aluminosilicate generated …
duced after the Bayer process. As a result, the A/S and N/S
of the material decreased dramatically from 2.66 and 1.45 to
1.05 and 0.53, respectively, with prolonged digestion tem-
perature. Moreover, the content of SiO2 in the leached resi-
dues obviously increased compared to that in the Al2O3-rich
material, while SiO2 in the leachate was relatively low with
a content of only 0.045 g/L, further exhibiting the same di-
gestion characteristics with the synthesized sodium alumi-
nosilicates.
Fig. 13. Effect of digestion temperature on digestion ratio of
Al2O3 from an Al2O3-rich material.
Table 3. Properties of the leached residue obtained from
Bayer process
Chemical compositions / wt%
A/S N/S
Al2O3 Na2O SiO2 TFe
21.59 10.83 20.53 6.56 1.05 0.53
Table 4. Properties of leachate obtained from Bayer process
Concentration of constituents / (g·L−1)
Caustic ratio
Na2O Al2O3 SiO2
265.27 162.71 0.045 2.68
4. Conclusions
In the reductive roasting–magnetic separation or smelting
process of iron and aluminum complex ores, sodium alumi-
nosilicates obtained from the reaction of Al- and Si-bearing
minerals with sodium constituents remained in the residue.
For further extraction of alumina from these non-ferrous
products, alkaline digestion behaviors of synthesized so-
dium aluminosilicates and Al2O3-rich residue were investi-
gated, and the results are as follows:
(1) The synthesized sodium aluminosilicates with differ-
ent molecular formulas acquired at various roasting condi-
tions were digested effectively in the alkaline process, whe-
reby the relative digestion ratio of Al2O3 attained 98%.
1387
Moreover, roasting temperatures in the range of 900–1300°C
had no significant effect on the digestion of the sodium alu-
minosilicates since the digestion ratio of Al2O3 only
changed to a limited extent.
(2) In the alkaline digestion process, the digestion of
Na2O and Al2O3 from the synthesized sodium aluminosili-
cates reached a maximum of about 75% and 65%, respec-
tively, under the appropriate conditions of digestion temper-
ature of 100–120°C, Na2O concentration of 180–240 g/L,
caustic ratio of above 4 and L/S of 10:2 mL/g. Sodium alu-
minosilicates were rapidly dissolved, as the relative diges-
tion ratio of Al2O3 reached about 95% within 15 min.
(3) As Bayer process was conducted on the Al2O3-rich
material derived from the reductive roasting process of a
high-iron bauxite ore comprising mainly Na1.75Al1.75Si0.25O4;
the relative digestion ratio of Al2O3 attained 90% at a diges-
tion temperature of 200°C, which further verifies the excel-
lent alkaline digestion performance of sodium aluminosili-
cates.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National
Natural Science foundation of China (Nos. 51234008 and
51174230) and the Program for New Century Excellent
Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China (No.
NCET-11-0515). The authors also gratefully acknowledge
the Co-Innovation Center for Clean and Efficient Utilization
of Strategic Metal Mineral Resources.
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