What Is Hydrometallurgy of Tungsten?

Hydrometallurgy of tungsten is a metallurgical technology that extracts tungsten through chemical reactions in aqueous solutions. The following is a detailed explanation of hydrometallurgy of tungsten:

 

Basic steps of hydrometallurgy of tungsten

Raw material processing

First, the tungsten ore is crushed, ground and screened to remove impurities and increase the reactivity of the ore.

Leaching:

Alkali leaching

Use sodium hydroxide solution to react with tungsten ore to produce soluble sodium tungstate. This is usually done at 110-130℃ or higher.

Acid leaching

For scheelite concentrate, sodium carbonate solution can be used for leaching at 200-230℃ in an autoclave, or hydrochloric acid can be used for decomposition at 90℃ to obtain solid crude tungstic acid.

Washing

Wash the tungsten acid precipitate with clean water to remove impurities.

Solution purification

Remove impurities such as silicon, phosphorus, and arsenic from the solution by combining physical, chemical or biological methods to improve the purity of tungsten compounds.

Reduction

Mix the tungsten acid precipitate with a reducing agent (such as carbon, aluminum powder) and reduce it to metallic tungsten powder at high temperature.

 

Key points of wet smelting technology of tungsten

Leaching conditions

Control the temperature, acid-base concentration, leaching time and other parameters in the leaching process to increase the leaching rate and reduce energy consumption.

Purification and purification

Use appropriate purifiers and control purification conditions, such as adding calcium chloride solution to obtain calcium tungstate precipitation, and then decompose it with hydrochloric acid to obtain industrial tungsten acid.

Environmental protection measures

The wastewater and waste gas generated during the wet smelting process need to be treated to reduce the impact on the environment. Wastewater treatment often adopts a combination of physical, chemical and biological methods, while waste gas treatment adopts chemical absorption, physical adsorption, catalytic oxidation and other methods.

 

Development direction of wet smelting of tungsten

Improve efficiency and recovery rate

By improving processes and equipment, further improve the efficiency of alkaline pressure cooking and the recovery rate of tungsten to save precious tungsten resources.

Environmental protection and clean production

Reduce wastewater discharge, strive to achieve no wastewater discharge, and truly realize clean production.

Combined beneficiation and smelting

Strengthen the joint research of beneficiation and smelting technology, improve the utilization efficiency of tungsten ore, reduce the requirements for the grade and impurity content of tungsten concentrate, and reduce the processing cost of mines.

 

In summary, the hydrometallurgy of tungsten is a technology that extracts tungsten through chemical reactions in aqueous solution, which has the advantages of low energy consumption, low pollution, and high product purity. With the advancement of technology and the improvement of environmental protection requirements, tungsten hydrometallurgy is developing in a more efficient and environmentally friendly direction.

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