Vanadium Extraction from Shale via Sulfuric Acid Baking and Leaching

Fluorides are widely used to improve vanadium extraction from shale in China. Sulfuric acid baking–leaching (SABL) was investigated as a means of recovering vanadium which does not require the use of fluorides and avoids the productions of harmful fluoride-containing wastewater. Various effective factors were systematically studied and the experimental results showed that 90.1% vanadium could be leached from the shale. On the basis of phase transformations and structural changes after baking the shale, a mechanism of vanadium extraction from shale via SABL was proposed. The mechanism can be described as: (1) sulfuric acid diffusion into particles; (2) the formation of concentrated sulfuric acid media in the particles after water evaporation; (3) hydroxyl groups in the muscovite were removed and transient state [SO42−] was generated; and (4) the metals in the muscovite were sulfated by active [SO42−] and the vanadium was released. Thermodynamics modeling confirmed this mechanism.