Separation of Zn and Fe in ZnFe2O4 by Reaction With MgCl2

Jingdong Huang; Il Sohn; Youngjo Kang; Xiao Yang

doi:10.1007/s11663-022-02556-9

Separation of Zn and Fe in ZnFe₂O₄ by Reaction With MgCl₂

Jingdong Huang, Il Sohn, Youngjo Kang, Xiao Yang

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Earth’s commercial and affordable zinc reserves are expected to be depleted in less than 50 years. Since electric arc furnace (EAF) dust contains a certain amount of Zn, recovery of Zn from EAF dust has become an important issue to assure a sustainable resource supply in the future. The key technical challenge is that Zn mainly occurs in EAF dust as ZnFe₂O₄, a very stable crystal which is difficult to reduce or leach. MgCl₂ is believed to be effective in breaking the structure of ZnFe₂O₄. This work investigates the fundamentals of the reaction between MgCl₂ and ZnFe₂O₄. Experiments show that Zn in ZnFe₂O₄ is chlorinated to ZnCl₂ quickly with priority over Fe, implying the efficacy of MgCl₂ in separating Zn and Fe in ZnFe₂O₄ by selective chlorination. Effects of MgCl₂/ZnFe₂O₄ molar ratio and temperature on the reaction are clarified. Overuse of MgCl₂ slows down the reaction and is detrimental to the selective chlorination of Zn. Temperature can effectively increase the reaction rate as well as the priority of chlorinating Zn. Utilization of MgCl₂ could be high, because evaporation of MgCl₂ is not as fast as the reaction with ZnFe₂O₄. According to these results, a new technology to recover Zn from EAF dust by using MgCl₂ is proposed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2634-2646
Number of pages	13
Journal	Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B: Process Metallurgy and Materials Processing Science
Volume	53
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11663-022-02556-9
Publication status	Published - 2022 Aug

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research is partially supported by the “Brain Pool Program” funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT through the National Research Foundation of Korea” (grant no. 2019H1D3A2A01058220). The authors thank Mrs. Yu Huang and Dr. Yinjuan Chen of Instrumentation and Service Center for Molecular Sciences at Westlake University for the assistance in the ICP-MS measurement.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Condensed Matter Physics
Mechanics of Materials
Metals and Alloys
Materials Chemistry

Access to Document

10.1007/s11663-022-02556-9

Cite this

@article{d51a20f0d330484c93ac89137b382450,

title = "Separation of Zn and Fe in ZnFe2O4 by Reaction With MgCl2",

abstract = "Earth{\textquoteright}s commercial and affordable zinc reserves are expected to be depleted in less than 50 years. Since electric arc furnace (EAF) dust contains a certain amount of Zn, recovery of Zn from EAF dust has become an important issue to assure a sustainable resource supply in the future. The key technical challenge is that Zn mainly occurs in EAF dust as ZnFe2O4, a very stable crystal which is difficult to reduce or leach. MgCl2 is believed to be effective in breaking the structure of ZnFe2O4. This work investigates the fundamentals of the reaction between MgCl2 and ZnFe2O4. Experiments show that Zn in ZnFe2O4 is chlorinated to ZnCl2 quickly with priority over Fe, implying the efficacy of MgCl2 in separating Zn and Fe in ZnFe2O4 by selective chlorination. Effects of MgCl2/ZnFe2O4 molar ratio and temperature on the reaction are clarified. Overuse of MgCl2 slows down the reaction and is detrimental to the selective chlorination of Zn. Temperature can effectively increase the reaction rate as well as the priority of chlorinating Zn. Utilization of MgCl2 could be high, because evaporation of MgCl2 is not as fast as the reaction with ZnFe2O4. According to these results, a new technology to recover Zn from EAF dust by using MgCl2 is proposed.",

author = "Jingdong Huang and Il Sohn and Youngjo Kang and Xiao Yang",

note = "Funding Information: This research is partially supported by the “Brain Pool Program” funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT through the National Research Foundation of Korea” (grant no. 2019H1D3A2A01058220). The authors thank Mrs. Yu Huang and Dr. Yinjuan Chen of Instrumentation and Service Center for Molecular Sciences at Westlake University for the assistance in the ICP-MS measurement. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International.",

year = "2022",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1007/s11663-022-02556-9",

language = "English",

volume = "53",

pages = "2634--2646",

journal = "Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B: Process Metallurgy and Materials Processing Science",

issn = "1073-5615",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Separation of Zn and Fe in ZnFe2O4 by Reaction With MgCl2

AU - Huang, Jingdong

AU - Sohn, Il

AU - Kang, Youngjo

AU - Yang, Xiao

N1 - Funding Information: This research is partially supported by the “Brain Pool Program” funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT through the National Research Foundation of Korea” (grant no. 2019H1D3A2A01058220). The authors thank Mrs. Yu Huang and Dr. Yinjuan Chen of Instrumentation and Service Center for Molecular Sciences at Westlake University for the assistance in the ICP-MS measurement. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International.

PY - 2022/8

Y1 - 2022/8

N2 - Earth’s commercial and affordable zinc reserves are expected to be depleted in less than 50 years. Since electric arc furnace (EAF) dust contains a certain amount of Zn, recovery of Zn from EAF dust has become an important issue to assure a sustainable resource supply in the future. The key technical challenge is that Zn mainly occurs in EAF dust as ZnFe2O4, a very stable crystal which is difficult to reduce or leach. MgCl2 is believed to be effective in breaking the structure of ZnFe2O4. This work investigates the fundamentals of the reaction between MgCl2 and ZnFe2O4. Experiments show that Zn in ZnFe2O4 is chlorinated to ZnCl2 quickly with priority over Fe, implying the efficacy of MgCl2 in separating Zn and Fe in ZnFe2O4 by selective chlorination. Effects of MgCl2/ZnFe2O4 molar ratio and temperature on the reaction are clarified. Overuse of MgCl2 slows down the reaction and is detrimental to the selective chlorination of Zn. Temperature can effectively increase the reaction rate as well as the priority of chlorinating Zn. Utilization of MgCl2 could be high, because evaporation of MgCl2 is not as fast as the reaction with ZnFe2O4. According to these results, a new technology to recover Zn from EAF dust by using MgCl2 is proposed.

AB - Earth’s commercial and affordable zinc reserves are expected to be depleted in less than 50 years. Since electric arc furnace (EAF) dust contains a certain amount of Zn, recovery of Zn from EAF dust has become an important issue to assure a sustainable resource supply in the future. The key technical challenge is that Zn mainly occurs in EAF dust as ZnFe2O4, a very stable crystal which is difficult to reduce or leach. MgCl2 is believed to be effective in breaking the structure of ZnFe2O4. This work investigates the fundamentals of the reaction between MgCl2 and ZnFe2O4. Experiments show that Zn in ZnFe2O4 is chlorinated to ZnCl2 quickly with priority over Fe, implying the efficacy of MgCl2 in separating Zn and Fe in ZnFe2O4 by selective chlorination. Effects of MgCl2/ZnFe2O4 molar ratio and temperature on the reaction are clarified. Overuse of MgCl2 slows down the reaction and is detrimental to the selective chlorination of Zn. Temperature can effectively increase the reaction rate as well as the priority of chlorinating Zn. Utilization of MgCl2 could be high, because evaporation of MgCl2 is not as fast as the reaction with ZnFe2O4. According to these results, a new technology to recover Zn from EAF dust by using MgCl2 is proposed.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131867465&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85131867465&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11663-022-02556-9

DO - 10.1007/s11663-022-02556-9

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85131867465

SN - 1073-5615

VL - 53

SP - 2634

EP - 2646

JO - Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B: Process Metallurgy and Materials Processing Science

JF - Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B: Process Metallurgy and Materials Processing Science

IS - 4

ER -