REMOVAL OF SULFUR FROM IRON ORE WITH PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL METHODS

In this study, sulfur was removed from Kahramanmaras Elbistan iron ore which has a high sulfur content by application of microwave and chemical methods (H2SO4 /H2O2) together. Low-grade iron ore with a high sulfur content constitutes a significant bottleneck especially in technical applications. Various physical and chemical methods for removal of sulfur from a high sulfur content iron ore are applied. However, the sulfur removal process must be economical to be applicable reasonably. Therefore, both physical and chemical methods of removal of sulfur were investigated in this study. In the first part of this study, iron ore was heated to a high temperature by microwave to decompose pyritic sulfur, which is one of the sulfur species in the ore (FeS2), into sulfur dioxide (SO2), ferrous sulfate (FeSO4) and pyrrhotite in (FeS). Then, the ore obtained by this process was extracted (leaching) with H2SO4/H2O2 solution at a determined concentration. The highest sulfur removal was obtained at 2.75 GHz and 900W microwave heating time of 210 sec and 0.03 N H2SO4/10% H2O2 treatment conditions at 60 min reaction time and ambient conditions. According to the obtained results, removal of sulfur content of the iron ore was not significantly affected at high microwave power, high H2SO4 and H2O2 concentration and high temperature conditions. By applying microwave and chemical methods (H2SO4/H2O2) together sulfur content of iron ore was removed approximately 84%.