Experimental Study and Mechanism Analysis of Preparation of α-Calcium Sulfate Hemihydrate from FGD Gypsum with Dynamic Method

Abstract

Flue-gas desulphurization (FGD) gypsum is a highly prevalent industrial by-product worldwide, which can be an excellent alternative to natural gypsum due to its high content of CaSO4·2H2O. The preparation of α-calcium sulfate hemihydrate is a high-value pathway for the efficient use of FGD gypsum. Here, a dynamic method, or an improved autoclaved process, was used to produce α-calcium sulfate hemihydrate from FGD gypsum. In this process, the attachment water of the mixture of FGD gypsum and crystal modifiers was approximately 18%, and the pH value was approximately 6.0. The mixture did not need to be pressed into bricks or made into slurry, and it was directly sent into the autoclave reactor for reaction. It was successfully applied to the practical production and application of FGD gypsum, citric acid gypsum and phosphogypsum. In this work, the compositions and morphology of the product at different stages of the reaction were examined and compared. In particular, single-crystal diffraction was used to produce the crystal structure of CaSO4·0.5H2O, and the results were as follows: a = 13.550(3); b = 13.855(3); c = 12.658(3); β = 117.79(3)°; space group C2. The preferential growth along the c-axis and the interaction mechanism between the carboxylate groups and the crystal were discussed throughout the analysis of the crystal structure.