Waste Minimization in Barite Based Industries through Better Processing of Mineral and Solid Effluents

摘要

Mineral barite, chemically BaSO_4 is available as a good quality material in many parts of India. Due to it's refractory nature the natural barite can not be used as such and it's conversion to barium sulfide is the first stage in processing if the mineral. It's reduction to sulfide using carbon as reducing agent is hampered by many side reactions, creating many water insoluble products and thus generating huge quantity of solid wastes in the proximity of processing industries. The present paper discusses our decade long research activities in enhancing the conversion of the mineral and reducing the waste generation. Finally the aspect of converting the so called solid waste in to resources through its technological utilization in various fields can be made possible resulting the overall reduction of wastage of the valuable dwindling natural resource.