Hydrolysis of iron and chromium fluorides: Mechanism and kinetics

Fluoride complexes of metallic ions are one of the main problems when processing industrial effluents with high content of fluoride anion. The most important case is derived from pickling treatment of stainless steel, which is performed with HNO₃/HF mixtures to remove oxides scale formed over the metal surface. Waste from this process, spent pickling liquor, must be treated for recovering metallic and acid content. Conventional treatments produce a final effluent with high quantity of fluoride complexes of iron and chromium. This work proposes a hydrolysis treatment of these solid metal fluorides by reacting them with a basic agent. Metal oxides are obtained, while fluoride is released to solution as a solved salt, which can be easily recovered as hydrofluoric acid. Solid iron and chromium fluorides, mainly K₂FeF₅(s) and CrF₃(s), obtained in the UCM treatment process, were employed in this work. Optimal hydrolysis operating conditions were obtained by means of a factorial design: media must be basic but pH cannot be higher than 9.5, temperature from 40 to 70 °C and alkali concentration (potassium hydroxide) below 1.1 mol L^-1. Secondary reactions have been detected, which are probably due to fluoride adsorption onto obtained oxides surface. Mechanism of reaction consists of several stages, involving solid fluoride dissolution and complexes decomposition. Hydrolysis kinetics has been modeled with classical crystal dissolution kinetics, based on mass transfer phenomena.