Selective recovery of phosphorus from acid leach liquor of iron ore by garlic peel adsorbent.

Dephosphorisation of iron ore is an important challenge to the sustainable development of iron-making industry. Hydrometallurgical processing is quite effective in the reduction of phosphorus level from iron ores, where dilute sulfuric acid is commonly chosen as the lixiviant due to its prominent cost-effectiveness. A cheap and effective biosorbent synthesized from garlic peel was proposed in present study to recover phosphorus selectively from acid leach liquor directly under acidic conditions near pH 1-2, allowing high purity phosphorus to be recovered and the residual acid to be recycled for the next round of leaching.