Influence of Chelating Agents on the Recovery of Al(III), Fe(III), Ti(IV) and Na(I) from Red Mud by Cation Exchange Membranes

Abstract

The metal recovery from red mud solution containing chelating agents such as nitriloacetic acid (NTA), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), citric acid, and phosphoric acid were studied by using the Neosepta CMX and CMB cation exchange membranes in Donnan dialysis process. The stripping solution was 1.0 M HCl solution and no external potential field is applied. The efficiency of chelating agents on the recovery of metal ions through membranes was correlated with the flux data. It was observed that the removal and fluxes of metals were enhanced with citrate, EDTA and NTA chelating agents in contrast were decreased with phosphate complexing agent.

Keywords:

• Donnan dialysis
• chelating agents
• red mud
• cation exchange membranes
• metal recovery

Acknowledgement

Eurodia Ltd. is gratefully appreciated for kindly supplying the membrane samples. Furthermore, we express our gratitude to Dr. Sait Gezgin, Agricultural Faculty, Selcuk University, for determination of metals with ICP‐AES. Finally, support for this work by the Selcuk University Research Foundation (SUAF) under project FBE 99/151 is gratefully acknowledged.