The change in the specific saturation magnetization before and after roasting was determined. Taking the red mud sample no. 3 as a sample, the specific saturation magnetization of the original red mud was 0.947 emu g−1, and it changed to 7.325 emu g−1 after being roasted but before magnetic separation. The separated magnetic separation had the specific saturation magnetization of 54.402 emu g−1, which is mainly Fe3O4 confirmed by XRD, while Fe content is only 36.9% indicating some impurities might be mingled with Fe3O4 during magnetic separation. The Fe contents in the non-magnetic part are less than 2%, which meets the stipulated standard for refractory material manufacture.
Based on the above discussion, Fe2O3 in red mud could transform to Fe3O4 after anaerobic co-roasting with pyrite at 600 °C, and recycling iron by the following magnetic separation. The mass balance calculated based on the lab experimental data is as following: for 1 t red mud with a Fe content of about 15%, at most 40 kg pyrite is needed to mix and co-roasting, and 232 kg Fe3O4 is expected upon magnetic separation; At least 10 kg pyrite is needed to guarantee the transformation, but 167 mol SO2 might be released.
The most concerned problem about this study was the release of SO2 during roasting, but the problem could be under control. Because the release of SO2 in the proposed method is similar to that in the industrial process of producing sulfuric acid by roasting pyrite, the released SO2 can be collected in water, and treated by the related process, and then sulfuric acid will be produced.
4. Conclusions
The present study indicates that hematite transforms into magnetite after being co-roasted with pyrite. When the temperature reached 525 °C, pyrite decomposed into iron monosulfide, pyrrhotite and element sulfur, all of which could reduce hematite into magnetite. As a result, hematite could completely transform into magnetite after its mixture with pyrite was roasted at a temperature above 600 °C unless the mole ratio of pyrite to hematite was less than 1:16. The iron content in red mud decreases by magnetic separation after roasting. The released SO2 gas during roasting could easily join the process of sulfuric acid production. This method is expected to be applied in industry for removal of iron from red mud only if the amount of the pyrite is calculated based on the content of Fe2O3 in red mud.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the support of Chinese Universities Scientific Fund (No. JD1313). The authors also would like to acknowledge National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51374016) for the financial aid.