Red mud as sorbent for S02 gas cleaning

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate S02 removal using red mud as sorbent in laboratory. The study was carried out by using a laboratory-scale reactor to examine the batch absorption of S02 gas with slurry and liquor of red mud samples obtained from Worsley Alumina Pty. Ltd., Western Australia. The intention of present batch absorption study is not only to constrain gas cleaning of S02 using red mud, but it also revealed how effective the sulfur dioxide in neutralizing the red mud which are verified as hazardous and caustic due to the high pH of 10-13. Prior to the absorption study, the red mud needs to undergo for alkalinity test in order to determine the intensity of carbonate and hydroxide ions present in the red mud. From the experiments, the hydroxide and carbonate ions are assumed to be consumed at a specific pH of the sample's alkalinity, taking into consideration the fact that hydroxide is commonly present at pH levels greater than 8.3, while carbonate is present at pH between 4.5 and 8.3. In other hand, analysis from the batch absorption " studies exhibited good performance of red mud as sorbent with respect to sulfur capacity.