Leaching Process Investigation of Secondary Aluminum Dross: The Effect of CO2 on Leaching Process of Salt Cake from Aluminum Remelting Process

For the recycling/disposal of aluminum dross/salt cake from aluminum remelting, aqueous leaching offers an interesting economic process route. One major obstacle is the reaction between the AlN present in the dross and the aqueous phase, which can lead to the emission of NH₃ gas, posing a serious environmental problem. In the current work, a leaching process using CO₂-saturated water is attempted with a view to absorb the ammonia formed in situ. The current results show that at a solid-to-liquid ratio of 1:20 and 3 hours at 291 K (18 °C), the extraction of Na and K from the dross could be kept as high as 95.6 pct and 95.9 pct respectively. At the same time, with continuous CO₂ bubbling, the mass of escaping NH₃ gas decreased from 0.25 mg in pure water down to <0.006 mg, indicating effective absorption of ammonia by carbonized water. Furthermore, the results in the case of the leaching experiments with synthetic AlN show that the introduction of CO₂ causes hindrance to the hydrolysis of AlN. The plausible mechanisms for the observed phenomena are discussed. The concept of the leaching of the salt cake by carbonated water and the consequent retention of AlN in the leach residue opens up a promising route toward an environment-friendly recycling process for the salt cake viz. recovery of the salts, utilization of CO₂, and further processing of the dross residue, toward the synthesis of AlON from the leach residues.