Direct Recovery of Boiler Residue by Combustion Synthesis

Boiler residue (BR) of thermal power plants is one of the important secondary sources for vanadium production. In this research, the aluminothermic self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) was used for recovering the transition metals of BR for the first time. The effects of extra aluminum as reducing agent and flux to aluminum ratio (CaO/Al) were studied and the efficiency of recovery and presence of impurities were measured. Aluminothermic reduction of vanadium and other metals was carried out successfully by SHS without any foreign heat source. Vanadium, iron, and nickel principally were reduced and gone into metallic master alloy as SHS product. High levels of efficiency (>80%) were achieved and the results showed that SHS has a great potential to be an industrial process for BR recovery. SHS produced two useful products. Metallic master alloy and fused glass slag that is applicable for ceramic industries. SHS can also neutralize the environmental threats of BR by a one step process.