Direct Application of Celestine Ore to Lead Removal From Zinc Electrolyte in Zinc Hydrometallurgical Process

In the Zinc hydrometallurgical production process, many impurities such as; Cu, Cd, and Ni, are removed before electrowinning. Lead is one of the main impurities that is responsible for the main impurity in zinc cathode. Lead can enter the electrolyte through a negligible dissolution of non-consumable lead anodes in the electrowinning process and also through the purified solution from the leaching step to the electrowinning process. In this study, celestine ore is used directly to remove lead from the spent electrolyte of the zinc hydrometallurgical production process. According to the results of experiments, celestine ore had satisfying effects on removing lead from the solution, especially in the optimum experiment conditions such as; T=۹۰ °C, t=۳ h, and using milled celestine ore as additive. Under the mentioned conditions and direct use of celestine was responsible for the lead removal up to approximately ۶۰%. The obtained results suggest that using celestine directly could be a potential alternative for strontium carbonate (SrCO۳) traditionally used to remove Pb from spent electrolytes.

کلیدواژه ها:

Zinc ، Celestine Ore ، Lead ، Zinc Electrolyte ، Strontium Carbonate