Treatment of waste pickling liquors:: Process synthesis and economic analysis

An economic analysis was carried out for three different recycle/recovery options for waste pickling liquors from hydrochloric acid pickling baths in an existing small-mid scale plant presently neutralizing and discarding waste pickling liquors. The analysis was based on process synthesis and design, which were completed by using real plant data along with some experimental work. Three basic schemes were studied: the addition of metallic iron to convert unused hydrochloric acid to ferrous chloride recovery by evaporation and recycling of a large proportion of the unused acid, and removal of ferrous chloride by crystallization to enable the recycling of the unused acid. All three schemes were evaluated at the same concentration of ferrous chloride by-product, which can be directly sold or converted later to ferric chloride, which has a higher market value. Extrapolation of existing solubility data was verified experimentally, cost estimation was done for purchased equipment and utility requirement, and feasibility analyses of the process schemes were completed. Depending on the market demand for the by-product and the criteria chosen, metallic iron addition or evaporation found to be recommendable, while the relatively more expensive crystallization process was also found to bring improvement over the no-treatment alternative.