Scandium Recovery from Red Mud by Carbonate Assist

Abstract

Known methods for production of scandium compounds are based mainly on the acidic leaching of scandium-containing materials, followed by its isolation as sparingly soluble compounds. However, these schemes have many operations, consume high amounts of reagents and electric power, resulting in a high cost of the final product. The effect of carbonate ions concentration, contact time, temperature, the ratio of S:L, type and amount of sorbent on the degree of scandium separation directly from red mud slurry was studied in this work. It has been shown that the greatest capacity of macroporous adsorbents exhibit scandium acrylic copolymers iminodifosfonic group situated closer to the polymer skeleton.