Efficient Sn Recovery from SnO2 by Alkane (CxHy=2x+2, 0 ≤ x ≤ 4) Reduction.

We study the mechanism of alkane reduction of SnO2 for efficient low-temperature recovery of Sn from SnO2. Based on thermodynamic simulation results, we comparatively analyze the reduction behavior and the efficiency of SnO2 reduction by H2 and alkanes (CxHy=2x+2, 0 ≤ x ≤ 4). We found that alkanes (n·CxHy) with the higher nx generally complete the reduction of SnO2 (T100) at the lower temperature. Moreover, the T100 of the SnO2 reduction by alkanes (n·CxHy) was decreased from the T100 of pure hydrogen with the same amount of hydrogen atoms (n·Hy). We found that the concentration of a gas phase product mixture, the amount of the produced solid carbon, and the T100 complementary vary as a function of the nx and ny, the total amount of carbon and hydrogen atoms in the reducing gas phase molecules. Our results demonstrate a viability of the low temperature reduction method of SnO2 by alkanes for efficient recovery of Sn from SnO2, which can be applied for Sn recovery from Sn containing industrial wastes or Sn ores with economic value added that is held by the co-produced H2.