Chemistry of inorganic compounds – Sulfur or compound thereof – Oxygen containing
Patent
1996-08-02
1998-06-16
Straub, Gary P.
Chemistry of inorganic compounds
Sulfur or compound thereof
Oxygen containing
423146, C01G 4914
Patent
active
057665664
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is a national stage filing under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 371 of PCT/FI95/00045 filed 2 Feb. 1995.
The present invention relates to a process of preparing ferric sulfate by oxidation from ferrous sulfate and sulfuric acid. The invention also relates to the use of ferric sulfate prepared according to the invention for the treatment of waste waters, for the preparation of pure tap water, and for other purposes of precipitating or removing impurities.
Ferrous sulfate is formed in large quantities as side streams of various processes in the world. One important producer of ferrous sulfate is the industry which prepares titanium dioxide by the sulfate method and uses ilmenite as its raw material. Significant amounts of ferrous sulfate are used for the treatment of waste waters, and the treatment of waste waters will increase worldwide. It is, however, known that ferric sulfate is more effective than ferrous sulfate in the treatment of waste waters and has indeed in part replaced the use of ferrous sulfate.
A process is known in which a solution is prepared from ferrous sulfate, sulfuric acid, and water, and the solution is further oxidized to a ferric sulfate solution by using nitric acid, oxygen, or hydrogen peroxide. These processes have the disadvantage that the concentration of iron in the ferric sulfate solution is disadvantageously low, thus requiring immoderately large storage containers and causing high transportation costs. Such a method is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,349, in which a ferrous sulfate solution which contains sulfuric acid is oxidized in two steps, first with oxygen and then with hydrogen peroxide, to form a ferric sulfate solution.
Also known are processes according to which the ferric sulfate solution is solidified by granulation or by other solidification methods, which always involve evaporation of the water.
However, these processes have the disadvantage that, owing to the low concentration of iron in the ferric sulfate solution, the obtaining of solid ferric sulfate requires the evaporation of immoderate quantities of water, which is uneconomical in terms of energy.
From GB patent publication 2 125 020 there is also known a process in which solid ferric sulfate is produced from ferrous sulfate and sulfuric acid by oxidizing the mixture at a high temperature in solid state at normal pressure. However, this process has the disadvantage that, owing to the high temperatures, the obtained solid ferric sulfate contains considerable amounts of water-insoluble compounds, which thus lower the concentration of active iron moles in the product, or their activation requires an extra addition of acid.
The object of the present invention is to provide a process by which a solid, highly water-soluble ferric sulfate can be prepared economically in terms of energy, storage and transportation.
The main characteristics of the invention are given in the accompanying claims.
In determining the dependence of the rate of oxidation of bivalent iron on the total concentration of iron in the solution/slurry it was found, surprisingly, that even though a significant proportion of the bivalent iron is in solid state in the initial step of the oxidation, this does not lengthen the total oxidation time to a significant degree. This is assumed to be due to the fact that, as bivalent iron oxidizes to trivalent iron, the total solubility of iron increases, which further enables more bivalent iron to dissolve to replace the oxidized iron, until there is no bivalent iron left in the solid phase. Respectively, as the concentration of trivalent iron increases, a portion of it begins to crystallize out from the solution at the stage when the concentration of trivalent iron exceeds the saturation concentration. Thus, when a slurry which contained both solid and dissolved ferrous sulfate was fed into the oxidation reactor, a slurry was obtained which contained both solid and dissolved ferric sulfate. The solidification of such a slurry can be conducted advantageously by cooling, by means of a plate granulator,
REFERENCES:
patent: 1636296 (1927-07-01), Elliott
patent: 1880265 (1932-10-01), Marsh et al.
patent: 4707349 (1987-11-01), Hjersted
patent: 5194241 (1993-03-01), Derka
Kenakkala Timo
Konstari Olli
Mattila Harri
Kemira Chemicals Oy
Kemira Pigments Oy
Nath Gary A.
Straub Gary P.
Vanoy Timothy C.
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