Treatment of strong alkaline wastewater from neutral leaching of EAF dust by precipitation and ion exchange

Neutral leaching or water washing is used for Cl- and partially Ca2+ ion removal in order to save the leaching reagents for the next steps in hydrometallurgical treatment of electric arc furnace dust. This pre-treatment of the material leads to the generation of strong alkaline (pH = 11.9-12.7) leachate (wastewater), which underlies precipitation of Ca and other accompanying metals. This work presents results from the study of various economically differing (cost and time) techniques for elimination of these disadvantageous phenomena. The aim of the experimental study was to obtain water suitable for reuse in the leaching or for discharge into a recipient in accordance with valid legislation. The experiments were focused on the removal of precipitates, or metals which create the precipitates, and pH decreasing. Our results indicate that five-minute agitation of 4 g solid NaHCO3 and 1 L of neutral leachate and subsequent ion exchange in the sequence of strong-acid cation and strong-base anion exchange treatment led to the acquisition of water without creation of precipitates, with pH below 8.5 and conductivity approx. 0.03 mS. The removal of Cl- ions was not complete.