Production of High-Purity Silica Sand from Ivorian Sedimentary Basin by Attrition without Acid Leaching Process for Windows Glass Making

Abstract

To produce high-purity silica sand usable for glass making, the present study was carried out. The objective of this work was to increase the silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) content to at least 99% using a simple process without chemical input. The raw sand samples were taken from the Ivorian sedimentary basin, from Maféré and Assinie areas, C ô te d’Ivoire. Wet sieving and attrition technique were used for the purification process. The results from the energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) analyses of the raw and treated samples show a significant increase of silica content and a significant reduction of impurities. The silica content (SiO 2 ) of the sand of Maféré increases from 98.73% ± 0.15% to 99.92% ± 0.05%. And the sand of Assinie increased from 98.82% ± 0.67% in the raw samples to 99.44% ± 0.27% after treatment. The rate of iron oxide and alumina is reduced in these sands. Moreover, the sand of Maféré contains 53.2% of grains of size lower than 500 microns and that of Assinie contains 29.30%. Regarding the chemical composition of these purified sands, they meet the standard BS2975s, the American Ceramic Society and the National Bureau of Standards for window glass making.