Elemental distributions of solid waste collected from the germanium extraction process.

The solid waste produced from the germanium extraction process has attached much attention to its potential germanium sources. However, the elemental distribution of solid waste is still unclear. Therefore, the solid waste was studied using a sequential extraction procedure and characterizations including XRD, FTIR, XPS, SEM-EDS, and XAFS. It has been found that Ca, S, Fe, and Si could present crystal occurrence forms such as calcium sulfate, iron oxide hydroxide, or quartz. Furthermore, Si and Al can form a certain amount of amorphous substance. Accordingly, the sequential leaching results tell that Ca and S can be mostly leached out in pure water or weak acid solution, and more than 50% of Fe, Al, and Si were leached out in the reducible or oxidizable environment. Additionally, a part of S could be associated with Pb, generating a mostly Pb-bearing sulfate structure. Most of Zn was leached out from the reducible step, and only a very small part of Zn presented in the residual state, indicating that the majority of Zn might exist in an oxidation state and a small amount of Zn is associated in the amorphous phase. In terms of Ge, As, and Cr, almost all of them existed in the residual state. Ge should be in the occurrence of Si/Al amorphous structure. Similarly, Cr should be most likely to associate with silicates. Furthermore, As is mainly associated with iron mineral through the formation of the binuclear bidentate corner-sharing complex.