Title: Utilisation of effluent from ilmenite processing to produce a value added product

Authors: Riyas Sharafudeen

Addresses: Department of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology, Jubail Industrial College (JIC), P.O. Box 10099, Jubail Industrial City 31961, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Titanium dioxide industries produce anatase grade titania through sulphate route by using ilmenite and sulphuric acid as major raw materials. After the reaction, a mixture of ferrous and ferric sulphate is produced as an industrial effluent. The disposal of this effluent is a major problem for all mineral processing industries. Generally, these effluents are disposed of into the nearby river or sea causing an environmental issue. In this study, a series of reactions were performed in a research laboratory to find out a method for utilising the above effluent to make a value-added pigment material. The study revealed that the effluent ferrous sulphate can be converted into an anticorrosive pigment called zinc ferrite by co-precipitation. The prepared material is characterised by wet chemical and instrumental analysis methods like FT-IR, XRD, particle size, surface area measurement and SEM-EDX. The pigmentary properties of zinc ferrite prepared are also evaluated for evaluating its use as a pigment material for anticorrosive paints. The study reveals that the ferrous sulphate industrial effluent from ilmenite processing can be successfully converted to a value-added pigment product called zinc ferrite. The details are discussed in this paper.

Keywords: industrial effluent; zinc ferrite; anticorrosive; pigment; co-precipitation; calcination.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2019.102383

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2019 Vol.10 No.2, pp.174 - 183

Received: 07 Jun 2018
Accepted: 04 Jun 2019
Published online: 23 Sep 2019 *

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