Introduction`

Zinc is an important base metal required for various applications in metallurgical,

chemical and textile industries [M.K. Jha et al., 2001, Recendiz et al., 2007]. It is mainly recovered

from primary sulphide concentrates. A part of zinc is also recovered from different secondary

resources viz. zinc ash, zinc dross, flue dusts of electric arc furnace and brass smelting etc. which

contain different level of impurities depending on their sources. The material could be used to

recover metallic values or it may be disposed off. But, the disposal of such materials is now

becoming expensive because of increasingly stringent environmental protection regulations [M.K.

Jha et al., 2001Colombo et al., 1994, De , Fraja Frangipane et al., 1989]. In view of the above,

there has been an increasing interest in developing processes for the recovery of zinc from

secondaries/wastes made in industrial processes. [M.K. Jha et al., 2001, Dvorak et al., 2006 ].

Galvanizing is a metallurgical industry process consisting of covering the surface of iron or steel

pieces with a reactive zinc layer that forms a very resistant covering so that the metallic piece is

protected from oxidation [Carrillo-Abad et al., 2011&2014] . Among these wastes, zinc dross

generated in galvanizing is very significant [Gordon et al., 2003, Dvorak et al., 2004, Ren et al.,

2010]. Zinc dross is one of the main zinc residues consisting of zinc metal, a fraction of zinc oxide

and minor impurities such as Fe, Si, Al, Cu, etc. The recovery of high purity zinc from this residue

has attracted more and more attention [Gordon et al., 2003, Dvorak et al, 2004].

Processes used for treating this kind of materials are pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical.

Generally, the pyrometallurgical way is more expensive than the other one and does not allow a

total recovery of metal [Moskalyk and Alfantazi, 2003, Rossini and Bernardes, 2006].The
hydrometallurgical processes are more environmentally suitable and economical to treat even low

zinc containing materials on small scale [Jackson, 1986, Dvorak and Jandova, 2005]. Among

hydrometallurgical processes, Electroleaching is new process in which an electric field applied to

the solid waste to be treated. Protons generated at the anode by water oxidation, migrate towards

the cathode. they react with metal oxides or salts contained in the solid placed between the

electrodes. Metal ions are formed and migrate to the cathode where they reduce to form a deposit.

The final product is zinc metal and can be directly recovered [Guillaume, 2007].

Barakat et al. has studied the recovery process of zinc from its solder dross in hydrochloric acid

media followed by selective precipitation and separation for the salts of the concerned metals.

[Barakat, 2007]. Ren et al. has reported the optimization of the process parameters for recovery of

zinc from hot galvanizing slag in an anion-exchange membrane electrolysis reactor in an

ammoniacal ammonium chloride system [Ren et al, 2010 ] . Guillaume et al. studied zinc

beneficiation of industrial solidwaste by an electrochemical technique combining electroleaching

and electrodeposition in a single-cell process [Guillaume et al., 2008]. Huajun et al. has casted

zinc dross into anodes and electrorefined in an ammoniacal ammonium chloride electrolyte (NH3-

NH4Cl) to produce high purity zinc [Huajun et al., 2008]. Natarajan et al has examined cathodic

and anodic electroleaching in order to recover zinc from zinc residues and also they has optimized

their experiments by response surface method (RSM) and among the processes tried, cathodic

electroleaching was found to be the most efficient method which could readily translated

[Natarajan et al., ]
2. Experimental

2.1. Characterization of zinc dross

A representative sample of zinc dross formed during the hot dip galvanizing process in .. was

used in this study. The composition of the processed ash is given in Table 1. Chemical analysis

was performed by the ICP (Inductive Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometer) analysis after

decomposition in aqua regia (HNO3 + 3 HCl).

Table 1. Chemical composition of zinc dross

Element Zn Fe Al Pb Ni Cd Mn Co

[wt.%] 94.8 4.3 0.83 0.05 0.012 0.006 0.003 0.002

2.2. Electroleaching Tests

Electroleaching was performed in a 500 ml container. The Zinc dross anode of 5cm*4cm*1mm

and an aluminum cathode of the same size were used. The anode to cathode distance was 40 mm.

Pure sulphuric acid added slowly with constant stirring (using magnets) in order to keep pH

between 0.5 to 2. After preparation, rectifier was turned on and examination was lasted for an

hour. According to the currents density for testing and cathode surface which was put in

solution, the suitable current was selected. After tests, in order to determine the Zn recovery from
solution, the anodes and cathodes were weighed. The weight difference of anodes before and

after experiment indicates the amount of Zn dissolved in electroleaching solution and for

cathodes indicates the amount of Zn deposited on cathodes from solution. All experiments were

carried out in a laboratory-built cell schematically shown in Fig

By using response surface methods (RSM) for experiment design and modeling in order to prevent

more experiments and increase repetitiveness, the range of experiment parameters were

determined. These parameters were shown in Table2.

Table2. Design factors and their levels

Experimental Symbol Unit Factor level

Parameters
Low (-1) High (+1)

Temperature A 0C 25 60

pH B - 0.5 2

Current Density C A/m2 300 600

2.3. Analytical methods

2.3.1. Zinc concentration

The zinc concentration in solution was determined by EDTA titration, which was taking in the

hydrochloric acidhexamine buffer system and xylenol orange was used as the indicator.