minerals Article Hydrometallurgical Production of Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide (EMD) from Furnace Fines Mehmet Ali Recai Önal 1,*, Lopamudra Panda 2, Prasad Kopparthi 3, Veerendra Singh 3, Prakash Venkatesan 4 and Chenna Rao Borra 5 1 InsPyro N.V. Kapeldreef 60, 3001 Leuven, Belgium 2 Research & Development Group, Tata Steel Ltd., Kalinga Nagar 755026, India;
[email protected] 3 Research and Development Division, Tata Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur 831001, India;
[email protected] (P.K.);
[email protected] (V.S.) 4 Department of Materials Engineering, Synthesis and Recycling (4MAT), Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 Avenue FD Roosevelt, CP165/63, 1050 Brussels, Belgium;
[email protected] 5 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology–Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +32-466-23-23-39 Abstract: The ferromanganese (FeMn) alloy is produced through the smelting-reduction of man- ganese ores in submerged arc furnaces. This process generates large amounts of furnace dust that is environmentally problematic for storage. Due to its fineness and high volatile content, this furnace dust cannot be recirculated through the process, either. Conventional MnO2 production requires the pre-reduction of low-grade ores at around 900 ◦C to convert the manganese oxides present in the ore into their respective acid-soluble forms; however, the furnace dust is a partly reduced by-product. In this study, a hydrometallurgical route is proposed to valorize the waste dust for the production of battery-grade MnO2. By using dextrin, a cheap organic reductant, the direct Citation: Önal, M.A.R.; Panda, L.; and complete dissolution of the manganese in the furnace dust is possible without any need for Kopparthi, P.; Singh, V.; Venkatesan, high-temperature pre-reduction.