Neutralization of red mud with pickling waste liquor using Taguchi’s design of experimental methodology

‘Red mud’ or ‘bauxite residue’, a waste generated from alumina refinery is highly alkaline in nature with a pH of 10.5–12.5. Red mud poses serious environmental problems such as alkali seepage in ground water and alkaline dust generation. One of the options to make red mud less hazardous and environmentally benign is its neutralization with acid or an acidic waste. Hence, in the present study, neutralization of alkaline red mud was carried out using a highly acidic waste (pickling waste liquor). Pickling waste liquor is a mixture of strong acids used for descaling or cleaning the surfaces in steel making industry. The aim of the study was to look into the feasibility of neutralization process of the two wastes using Taguchi’s design of experimental methodology. This would make both the wastes less hazardous and safe for disposal. The effect of slurry solids, volume of pickling liquor, stirring time and temperature on the neutralization process were investigated. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows that the volume of the pickling liquor is the most significant parameter followed by quantity of red mud with 69.18% and 18.48% contribution each respectively. Under the optimized parameters, pH value of 7 can be achieved by mixing the two wastes. About 25–30% of the total soda from the red mud is being neutralized and alkalinity is getting reduced by 80–85%. Mineralogy and morphology of the neutralized red mud have also been studied. The data presented will be useful in view of environmental concern of red mud disposal.