• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.26-37
• /
• 2023

Good control of the solution pH and temperature is required to recover vanadium from the water leaching solution of vanadium ore after sodium roasting. However, such adjustments could lead to aluminum-vanadium and sodium-vanadium co-precipitation, which greatly affects the efficiency of vanadium recovery. In this study, a process that can increase the efficiency of vanadium recovery as ammonium metavanadate [NH₄VO₃] and ammonium polyvanadate [(NH₄)₂V₆O₁₆·H₂O] was investigated by examining the characteristics of vanadium-containing aqueous solutions during precipitation. The aluminum content of vanadium-containing water leaching solutions has a great effect on the loss of vanadium when the pH of the aqueous solution is adjusted to 9. Therefore, a process to minimize aluminum leaching is also required. In this study, ~99% or more of vanadium present in vanadium-containing aqueous solutions was precipitated and recovered as NH₄VO₃ by adding 3 equivalents of ammonium chloride relative to the vanadium content at pH 9 and room temperature. (NH₄)₂V₆O₁₆·H₂O was precipitated from the aluminum-vanadium coprecipitates generated during the pH-adjustment of the aqueous solutions to 9 by dissolving the coprecipitate in the solutions at pH 2.5 and controlling their sodium content to 2,000 mg/L or less. Approximately, 98% or more of the available (NH₄)₂V₆O₁₆·H₂O could be precipitated and recovered from a solution with a vanadium content of 2,200 mg/L and a sodium content of 1,875 mg/L at pH 2.5 by adding approximately 3 equivalents of ammonium chloride relative to the vanadium content at 95℃ or higher. The overall process could precipitate and recover, approximately 91% or more of the total vanadium in the water leaching solution as NH₄VO₃ and (NH₄)₂V₆O₁₆·H₂O.