Investigation on the Effect of Roasting and Leaching Parameters on Recovery of Gallium from Solid Waste Coal Fly Ash

Coal fly ash (CFA) provides important resources of gallium, which is regarded as an irreplaceable material in many technologies. A prospective roasting reagent assisted acid leaching process was proposed for the purpose of extracting gallium. The extraction efficiency of gallium by NaF (sodium fluoride) roasting followed by HNO3 (nitric acid) leaching process was demonstrated. The effect of roasting temperature, roasting time, the NaF-CFA mass ratio, acid leaching temperature, acid leaching time, and acid concentration were investigated. The results revealed that under optimal conditions (roasting temperature of 800 °C, roasting time of 10 min, acid leaching in 2 mol/L HNO3 for 1 h, and the NaF-CFA mass ratio of 0.75:1), 94% of gallium was extracted. Compared to previous studies, the process is a cost-effective method which can greatly shorten reaction time. It can reduce environmental pollution as it requires fewer acid reagents with low concentration and additives. It is expected to provide a method for the extraction of gallium from CFA.