Reduction of Sulphur Content of AGBAJA Iron Ore using Hydrochloric Acid (HCL)

Abstract

Iron ores are used in blast furnace for the production of pig iron; AGBAJA Iron ore has an estimated reserve of over I billion metric tonnes. Unfortunately, this large reserve cannot be utilized for the production of pig iron due to its high sulphur contents. This work studied the reduction of sulphur content of AGBAJA iron ore. Acid leaching methods were used to reduce sulphur contents of the ore. Sulphuric acid of different concentrations were used at various leaching times, acid concentrations and particle sizes. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, X-ray fluorescence spectrophotometer, Digital muffle furnace and Absorbance-concentration technique were used for experimentation and chemical analysis. The reduction of the sulphur content of AGBAJA Iron Ore using Acid leaching process experiments were carried out at the National Metallurgical Development Centre (NMDC), Jos in Plateau State of Nigeria. Sulphur is one of the main harmful elements in ferrous metallurgy and it affects the quality of iron and steel produced. At present, Nigeria has some large iron ore deposits including AGBAJA which bear tremendous iron ore with high sulphur content of 0.12%. Central composite design technique was applied to obtain optimum conditions of the processes. Surface response plots were obtained. The percentage degrees of reduction of sulphur content of AGBAJA Iron ore were found to increase with increase in acid concentration and leaching time and a decrease in particle size for the three acids. The experimental results for percentage removal of sulphur are 85.56% the optimum % removal of sulphur is 89.66%. The result of this work has shown that AGBAJA Iron Ore if properly processed can be used in our metallurgical plants and also can be exported since sulphur contents of the ore have been reduced drastically.