Selective reduction process of zinc ferrite and its application in treatment of zinc leaching residues

The traditional zinc hydro-metallurgy generates a large amount of zinc ferrite residue rich in valuable metals. The separation of iron is crucial for resource recycling of valuable metals in zinc ferrite residue. A novel selective reduction roasting-leaching process was proposed to separate zinc and iron from zinc leaching residue which contains zinc ferrite. The thermodynamic analysis was employed to determine the predominant range of Fe3O4 and ZnO during reduction roasting process of zinc ferrite. Based on the result of thermodynamic calculation, we found that V(CO)/V(CO+CO2) ratio is a key factor determining the phase composition in the reduction roasting product of zinc ferrite. In the range of V(CO)/V(CO+CO2) ratio between 2.68% and 36.18%, zinc ferrite is preferentially decomposed into Fe3O4 and ZnO. Based on thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, the optimal conditions for reduction roasting of zinc ferrite are determined as follows: temperature 700-750 °C, volume fraction of CO 6% and V(CO)/V(CO+CO2) ratio 30%. Based on the above results, zinc leaching residue rich in zinc ferrite was roasted and the roasted product was leached by acid solution. It is found that zinc extraction rate in zinc leaching residue reaches up to 70% and iron extraction rate is only 18.4%. The result indicates that zinc and iron can be effectively separated from zinc leaching residue.