Aluminum recovery from water treatment plant: a contribution to the self-

sustainability of the water treatment process.

Luis G. S. Sobral*, Ronaldo L. C. Santos* & Fabio H. S. dos Santos**
*Senior Researchers of CETEM (Centre for Mineral Technology/Rio de Janeiro-Brazil-
Lsobral@cetem.gov.br & rsantos@cetem.gov.br ) **MSc student of COPPE/UFRJ(Pos-
Graduation Co-ordination Program in Engineering fsantos@metalmat.ufrj.br )

The water treatment for municipality consumption, consists, in the first place, of the
conventional reaction of this water with aluminum sulfate solution, whose dosage is a
function of solid in suspension quantity. When an aluminum sulfate solution is added to the
supply water, one or more chemical reactions can occur. According to these chemical
reactions, the in situ generation of such flocculants will depend on water relative alkalinity
or acidity.

Once generated, the result is a suspension of these compound in the bulk that decant
dragging with them the solids in suspension, previously present in the water supply. The
term solid in suspension is applied to the heterogeneous material present in the water
supply, consisting, basically, of mud, clay, and industrial residues.

The residue from the settling operation, is a mix of all the aforementioned solid, originally
present in water under treatment, and aluminum hydroxide that can be recovered aiming at
recycling it, as aluminum sulfate, to the aforesaid flocculation process.

The main objective of this work was to develop, in a lab scale, a chemical treatment process
of such residue so as to remove/recovery the aluminum as sulphate (Al 2(SO4)3). The
chemical analysis of different residues, from different water treatment plants, indicated that
the aluminum content ranged from 15 to 20% w/w. After running leaching tests, in different
experimental conditions, the whole aluminum content was extracted. Taking into
consideration that the aluminum pregnant solution contained the aluminum concentration
and pH value suitable to be used back to the water treatment process, the practice of the
process under consideration should be encouraged as it contributes to the self-sustainability
of the water treatment process. In addition, one has to bear in mind that the aluminum
sulphate consumed everywhere in the world comes from the sulphuric acid leaching of
bauxite, a non-renewable mineral resource.