Precipitation methods using calcium-containing ores for fluoride removal in wastewater

Abstract

F-containing wastewater does great harm to human health and the ecological environment and thus needs to be treated efficiently. In this paper, the new calcium-containing precipitant calcite and aided precipitant fluorite were adopted to purify F-containing wastewater. Relevant reaction conditions, such as reaction time, oscillation rate, dosage of hydrochloric acid, calcite dosage and the assisting sedimentation performance of fluorite, and action mechanism are analyzed. The experiment showed that the removal rate of fluoride in simulated wastewater reached 96.20%, when the reaction time, the dosage of calcite, the dosage of 5% dilute hydrochloric acid, and the oscillation rate was 30 min, 2 g/L, 21.76 g/L, and 160 r/min, respectively. Moreover, the removal rate of fluoride in the actual F-containing smelting wastewater reaches approximately 95% under the optimum condition of calcite dosage of 12 g/L, reaction time of 30 min, and oscillation rate of 160 r/min. The addition of fluorite significantly improves the sedimentation performance of the reactive precipitates. The experimental results showed that calcite and fluorite can effectively reduce the concentration of fluoride ions in F-containing wastewater and solve the problem of slow sedimentation of reactive precipitates.