Topicality and possibilities for complete processing of red mud of aluminous production

Abstract

In the aluminum industry, the largest amount of waste is red mud (RM). that is a solid bauxite residue after hydrochemical processing and extraction of alumina. The topicality of its processing was shown by the ecological catastrophe in Hungary (2010), where the bund wall of the slurry storage was destroyed and the viscous mass of fine red mud fell on thousands of hectares of land. The risks of a recurrence of such a catastrophe increase due to the increased natural disasters: earthquakes, torrential rains and floods, as well as terrorist attacks. Therefore, it is proposed to exclude the storage of red mud in sludge storages and organize its shipment in transportable form to processing complexes. The article presents the results of scientific research and the experience of complex processing of red sludge on an industrial scale with the production of new types of marketable products.