Removal of Organic Contaminants from Aluminum Chloride Solutions

摘要

The Bureau of Mines, in its efforts to insure the continued viability of the domestic minerals economy, has been engaged for several years in research on the extraction of alumina from domestic, nonbauxitic resources. Hydrochloric acid leaching of kaolin is one of the more promising technologies being studied for recovering alumina for feedstock to existing aluminum smelting capacity; 93 pct of this feedstock is currently imported either as bauxite or alumina. Organics contamination of pregnant leach liquor, originating during solvent extraction for removal of iron from aluminum chloride solution formed during hydrochloric acid leaching, causes rapid deterioration of the semihard rubber lining of process equipment. Analytical methods employing CCl(4) extraction and infrared spectrophotometry were developed to determine the organic content of both the liquor and the carbon. Mass transfer zones delineated in the carbon columns provide adsorption data for the design of larger systems.