Talk:Bayer process

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This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): GrostoTwig.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 15:28, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Spelling
Aluminium vs. aluminum is not an American vs. British issue; it is an IUPAC standard issue. See Naming conventions (chemistry).

Anonymous comment
The first equation is not balanced. Fix it 212.179.206.80 14:40, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Equation:

The first two equations are not connected it seems. This is supposed to be a process, but we're not accounting for one OH- between the end of the first equation and the beginning of the second.
 * There is a discrepancy between the diagram and the text. The diagram shows the product as sodium aluminate NaAl(OH)4 but the text says aluminium hydroxide Al(OH)3. I think the equation should be Al2O3 + 2 NaOH +  3 H2O → 2 NaAl(OH)4. The sodium aluminate probably is precipitated as aluminium hydroxide later, but I think a step has been missed out. Biscuittin (talk) 14:28, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I have added the missing step, see article. Biscuittin (talk) 20:35, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The missing step is that silicon dioxide also dissolves in the NaOH, and the aluminum must be separated. see http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/327aluminum.html for details -- 174.137.243.141 (talk) 20:30, 2 June 2013 (UTC)
 * discussion of silica in NaOH is found at http://www.cal-water.com/pdf/Silica_scaling_Remediation.pdf and the reaction is SiO2 + 2 NaOH → Na2SiO3 + H2O. -- 208.76.231.70 (talk) 15:35, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

The process has undergone several modifications; here is an historical account http://www.scs.illinois.edu/~mainzv/HIST/bulletin_open_access/num17-18/num17-18%20p15-19.pdf and discussion at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed068p270.1 it should be noted that the CO2 route is no longer used industrially. -- 208.76.231.70 (talk) 15:01, 3 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Patnaik (2002, Handbook of inorganic chemicals / Pradyot, Patnaik. ISBN 0-07-049439-8) writes that the Bayer process "is not suitable for extracting bauxite that has high silica content (>10%)" but the entire description appears to be in disagreement with other sources concerning the content of the "red mud", so we should be careful. -- 208.76.231.70 (talk) 15:10, 3 June 2013 (UTC)
 * http://ip.com/patfam/en/39540637 describes using starch or other products as a flocculent to remove fine particles -- 208.76.231.70 (talk) 14:07, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Student Editing
Hi I'm a student planning to edit the page to include links to other Articles on Wikipedia for certain terms with articles. I will also add to the history section and add a "Waste" section below the procedure. I will also provide more sources. Thanks GrostoTwig (talk) 03:29, 12 April 2018 (UTC)GrostoTwig