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Removal of iron from silica sand by surface

cleaning using power ultrasound
Article in Minerals Engineering July 2007
DOI: 10.1016/j.mineng.2006.10.005

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H. L. Zhao
Yan Shan University
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Minerals Engineering 20 (2007) 816818

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Technical note

Removal of iron from silica sand by surface cleaning

using power ultrasound
H.L. Zhao
a

a,b,*

, D.X. Wang c, Y.X. Cai a, F.C. Zhang

a,b

State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, PR China
b
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, PR China
c
Qinhuangdao Glass Research Institute, Qinhuangdao, PR China
Received 31 May 2006; accepted 4 October 2006
Available online 30 November 2006

Abstract
The purpose of these experiments is to investigate the possibility to use power ultrasound to remove iron-rich coatings from the surfaces of silica sand for glass making. Experiments show that the iron-rich coating on a particle surface of silica sand with 0.18% Fe2O3
was reduced to 0.11% with powerful ultrasonic an experiment set-up from our own design. The treatment time and chemical reagent were
varied to determine the optimum conditions. Some electrolytes will be useful to eliminate iron.
 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Silica sand; Iron-rich coating; Ultrasonic; Iron elimination

1. Introduction
Ultrasound has been widely used in the mining industry
as an assistant means (Farmer et al., 2000, 2002). In fact it
is possible to apply ultrasonic power directly to mineral
processing. Silica sand for glass making needs a low content of iron. It is known that there is an iron-rich coating
on the particle surface and in ssures, which makes silica
sand high in iron content and rusty in appearance. Iron
coating sticks on the surface so rmly that the common
mechanical scrubbing method is not eective. Ultrasound
is a powerful and high frequency (P20 kHz) sonic vibration wave. It is possible to remove ne clay particles and
iron coating on sand surfaces by using shearing forces of
ultrasound (Taxiarchou et al., 1997; Tarasova et al.,
2001). When it is generated in water or liquid countless
micro-bubbles will be formed and destroyed. This is called
cavitation. In the course of cavitation the pressure inside
*
Corresponding author. Address: College of Materials Science and
Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, PR China. Tel.: +86 335
8074794; fax: +86 335 8074545.
E-mail address: zhaohongli@ysu.edu.cn (H.L. Zhao).

0892-6875/$ - see front matter  2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2006.10.005

the liquid changes abruptly and an impulse wave occurs.

Under the act of a powerful impulse wave the iron-rich
coating falls o and is dispersed into the liquid phase.
The superiority of ultrasound to the mechanical scrubbing
is that the iron in ssures can be peeled o. Therefore, a
more visible eect of iron reduction can be obtained (Suslick, 1989; Lauterborn and Hentschel, 1986). In this paper
investigation on iron elimination from silica sand by ultrasound was conducted. Experiments show that the iron on
the silica sand surface can be eliminated more eciently
by ultrasound than by mechanical scrubbing.

2. Experimental
2.1. Preparation of sample
Raw mineral used in this experiment was excavated
from Ganqika sand deposit in the Inner Mongolia region
of China. Sample (0.71 mm) pretreatment is necessary
so as to remove other contributing factors before ultrasound was performed: washing with a standard sieve
(1 mesh = 0.1 mm) to take away iron in clay, then separa-

H.L. Zhao et al. / Minerals Engineering 20 (2007) 816818

ting three times with a high intensity magnetic separator

(magnetic eld intensity = 1.0 T) to remove mineral containing iron in discrete mineral.
The iron contents (Fe2O3%) of the sample from the
above pretreatment are reduced from 0.36% (wt.%) to
0.18% (wt.%).

contents obtained from the samples which were soaked in

10% (mass percent) hydrochloric solution at 90 C for
60 min and then washed clean with distilled water, which
are used as the reference limit values of iron elimination.
The following conclusions can be made from the data in
Table 1:
(1) Ultrasound does have an eect on extraction of the
iron-rich coating. But the eect is only somewhat
superior to that of mechanical scrubbing in a water
medium.
(2) The iron elimination eect of ultrasound increases
with the processing time particularly up to 10 min.
The eciency of iron elimination, E, is 52.7% within
10 min. Generally speaking, the iron coating on sand
particle surfaces includes two types: one is the
Fe(OH)3 gel layer which is formed by dipping in
iron-rich solution for long time and the other is the
clay minerals which attach to the surface of the sand
particles in the form of clusters or multilayer of ne
grain. The two kinds of contamination are called
iron coating. The process of removing the Fe(OH)3
gel layer will obviously take more time than removing
the clay minerals.
(3) It is found that replacing the turbid water with clear
water is important because the pulp in the trough
becomes turbid as soon as the start of the ultrasound,
and this may lead to recontamination of the particles.
The experimental results listed in parentheses in
Table 1 are that for water replacement while the others data is without feedwater. It can be seen that the
feedwater speeds up the extraction of iron dramatically. This demonstrates that an upstream device is
necessary for enhancing the eectiveness of iron
elimination.

2.2. Experimental equipment

The ultrasonic experimental equipment consists of
three parts: a at bottomed stainless steel tank (L W
H = 450 300 330 mm), a generator and six piezoelectric
ceramic transducers which are attached to the tank bottom
converts the electric signal into elastic mechanical vibration
(ultrasonic vibration), with a 500 W, 25 kHz power source.
Upstream water is supplied by gravity from a tank through
pipes on the tank bottom. The upstream washing water can
maintain sand particles in suspension to avoid the sand
sinking to the tank bottom and maintain discharge of
impurities through overow in order to prevent from reattachment of the impurities to particle surfaces.
2.3. Evaluation of eects to extract iron from silica sand
E, the eciency of iron elimination can be calculated by
the following equation:
E

ab
%;
ac

817

where, a is the iron content in the original sample

(Fe2O3 = 0.18%); b is the iron content after treatment; c
is the limiting value of iron elimination after hot acid
treatment.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. The relationship between the results of iron elimination
and processing time

3.2. Eects in chemicals medium

The eect of iron elimination in water medium varies

with the processing time while the pulp concentration is
kept constant at 40%. Under the same condition the
mechanical scrubbing experiments were also conducted
for comparison. The experimental results are listed in Table
1. The data in hot acid treatment the column give the iron

It is known that some inorganic electrolytes can contribute to increasing the washing eciency in the ultrasonic
process. It were conrmed that the eect of chemical additives on the rate of iron elimination on the sample in which
the original content of Fe2O3 is 0.18% (wt.%) and the pulp
density is 40% (wt.%) in the ultrasonic process. The

Table 1
Relationship between results of iron elimination and processing time
Sample

a = 0.18%

Processing time/min

1
5
10
15

Ultrasonic washing

Mechanical scrubbing

Hot acid treatment

b1 Fe2O3/%

E1/%

b2 Fe2O3/%

E2/%

c Fe2O3/%

0.17
0.15
0.15
0.14

7.5
22.6
22.6
30.1

0.18
0.17
0.17
0.16

0
7.5
7.5
15.0

(0.16)
(0.13)
(0.11)
(0.11)

(15.0)
(37.6)
(52.7)
(52.16)

0.047

Notes: (1) The Fe2O3% is the chemical analysis result from treated sample. (2) The data in bracket is the result of continuously replacing water.
a the iron content in sample; c the iron content after acid treatment, that is the limit value of iron elimination; b1, b2 the iron contents after ultrasonic
wash and mechanical scrubbing respectively; E1, E2 the eciency of iron elimination with the ultrasonic wash and mechanical scrubbing, respectively.

818

H.L. Zhao et al. / Minerals Engineering 20 (2007) 816818

Table 2
Variation of residual iron content with processing time in chemicals
medium
Chemicals

Treatment time/min

Fe2O3/%

Eciency of iron
elimination/%

Na2CO3

5
15
25

0.09
0.08
0.085

67.7
75.0
71.4

Na2SiO3

5
15
25

0.085
0.075
0.075

71.4
78.6
78.6

(NaPO3)6

5
15
25

0.094
0.094
0.104

64.3
64.3
57.1

5
15
25

0.104
0.104
0.08

57.1
57.1
75.1

AlCl3

treatment time was 10 min and the concentration of the

chemical solution was 15% (wt.%). The results are listed
in Table 2.
As it is seen from Table 2 the ultrasonic washing in
chemicals diers from that in water. The combination of
the ultrasonic washing and chemicals adds to the eciency
of iron elimination. The eciency of eliminated iron is
raised by 4.425.9% (average: 15%) compared to that in
water. The contribution of inorganic electrolytes such as
water glass (Na2SiO3), soda (Na2CO3), sodium pyrophosphate [(NaPO3)6], alumina (Al2O3) comes from the disaggregation to mud. There is a strong polarity on the
surface of the sand particles, which may polarize the water
molecules around and make them directionally arranged
forming a hydrated layer. The thickness of this layer may
measure up to several thousands of times the water molecule diameter. Before collision of two particles they must
overcome the repulsion exerted from the hydrated layer,
that is to say the hydrated layer acts as a protective cover
to hinder the elimination of iron coat by scrubbing. This
explains why scrubbing technology cannot lead to a satisfactory eect. The water glass added into the water can
hydrolyze high hydratability HSiO3, and form gel grains
which can be accompanied with thicker hydrated layer.
As a result the former hydrated layer around the sand particles has been impaired so much that it is susceptible to
exterior inuences. Under the action of external forces such
as ultrasound or mechanical scrubbing the iron coat falls

o into the water. The silica acid gel will attach to the
new surface of the sand particles and form electronegative
ions, accordingly a thicker hydrated layer is formed again.
This newly formed hydrated layer protects the particle
from recontamination by the iron oxides. This theory can
be used to clear up the working principle of other electrolytes. The intensifying wash eect of chemicals by ultrasound is from the cavitation which great assists the
dispersion of the chemicals, multiplying the contact chance
of the chemicals with particle surface and dissolution of the
iron oxides by the chemicals.
4. Conclusion
(1) Improved iron elimination can be obtained on processing natural silica sand with the ultrasound technology. Under the same conditions, the eect of
iron elimination, E, is as high as 52.7% in 10 min,
which is raised by 45.2% compared with the scrubbing technology. The eect of iron elimination in 1
5 min is equivalent to that with mechanical scrubbing
in 1015 min. That is to say the processing time can
be reduced more than three times.
(2) Turbid water should be removed while ultrasonic
process is in progress, otherwise the reattachment of
impurities to the particle surface will obstruct the iron
elimination, the iron elimination rate can be reduced
to half at most.
(3) The iron elimination rate can be raised by 1530%
when the ultrasonic technology is combined with
chemicals in solution due to their synergistic action.

References
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Farmer, A.D., Collings, A.F., Jameson, G.J., 2002. The application of
power ultrasound to the surface cleaning of silica and heavy mineral
sands. Ultrasonics 7 (4), 243247.
Lauterborn, W., Hentschel, W., 1986. Cavitation bubble dynamics studied
by high speed photography and holography, part two. Ultrasonics 24
(2), 260266.
Suslick, K.S., 1989. The chemical eects of ultrasonic. Sci. Am. 2, 8086.
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