Aluminum hydroxide is an essential material for the industrial production of ceramics (especially insulators and refractories), desiccants, absorbents, flame retardants, filers for plastics and rubbers, catalysts, and various construction materials. The calcination process of Al(OH)3 first induces dehydration and, finally, results in α-Al2O3 formation. Nevertheless, this process contains various intermediary steps and has been proven to be complicated due to the development of numerous transitional alumina. Each step of the investigation is vital for the entire process because the final properties of materials based on aluminum trihydroxide are determined by their phase composition, morphology, porosity, etc. In this paper, five dried, milled, and size-classified aluminum hydroxide specimens were thermally treated at 260, 300, and 400 °C; then, they were studied in order to identify the effects of temperature on their properties, such as particle morphology, specific surface area, pore size, and pore distribution. The major oxide compounds identified in all samples were characteristic of bauxite—namely, Al2O3 * 3H2O, SiO2, Fe2O3, Na2O, and CaO. Particles with smaller sizes (<10 µm = 76.28%) presented the highest humidity content (~5 wt.%), while all samples registered a mass loss of ~25 wt.% on ignition at 400 °C. The identified particles had the shapes of hexagonal or quasi-hexagonal platelets and resulted in large spherulitic concretions. The obtained results suggest that ceramic powders calcined at 400 °C should be used for applications as adsorbents or catalysts due to their high specific area of about 200–240 m2/g and their small pore width (3–3.5 nm).

Chemical analysis, classical or instrumental using ICP and the XRF spectrometry, offers complete information on elemental composition and major chemical constituents of bauxite and bauxite residues resulted from the Bayer process. The XRD diffractometric analysis provides information on quantitative mineralogical composition of these materials and it enables the real identification of main chemical combinations, whose reactivity is essential in driving the process of obtaining alumina through the Bayer process. Mineralogical components identified in the bauxite samples were ,

In this paper, the thermal decomposition of crystalline Al(OH)3 was studied over the temperature range of 260–400 °C for particles with a size between 10 and 150 µm. The weight losses and thermal effects occurring in each of the dehydration process were assessed using thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermal analysis. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, refined by the Rietveld method, were used for mineral phase identification, phase composition analysis, and crystallinity degree determination. Moreover, the particle size distributions and their corresponding D10, D50, and D90 numeric values were determined with a laser analyzer. We observed a strong relationship between the calcination temperature, the initial gibbsite grade particle size, and the crystallinity of the resulting powders. Hence, for all endothermic effects identified by DSC, the associated temperature values significantly decreased insofar as the particle dimensions decreased. When the gibbsite was calcined at a low temperature, we identified small amounts of boehmite phase along with amorphous new phases and unconverted gibbsite, while the powders calcined at 400 °C gradually yielded a mixture of boehmite and crystalized γ-Al2O3. The crystallinity % of all phase transition products declined with the increase in particle size or temperature for all the samples.

This paper is reporting the data of a preliminary study on heavy metals distribution in the fluid and solid phases involved in dry and classified aluminium hydroxide production through Bayer process. For heavy metals released in the fluid phases, the main source of contamination is the bauxite through its mineralogical phases soluble or insoluble in alkaline solution. It was shown that predominant way to transfer contaminating elements in aluminium hydroxide particles is the occlusion of very fine particles coming from mineralogical phases of bauxite residue. New born mineralogical phases from bauxite residue, like poor crystallized sodalite and cancrinite, are the most active occlusion contaminants

The purity, structural surface, particle dimensions, particle size distribution, and the associated reactivity of chemical and surface properties are the most important and most required properties of alumina hydrate special brands. The purpose of this paper concerns the common metallic impurities accumulation on the surface of alumina hydrate particles, during the sodium aluminates decomposition in liquid phase, during the entire aluminum hydroxide crystallization stage in the Bayer technology.