Glasgow Caledonian University
SEBE PhD Research Project Portfolio
Project Reference Number
SEBE_ETM_JQJ_1
School/Institute/Research Group
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Research Discipline
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School of Engineering and Built Environment
The Institute of Sustainable Engineering and Built Environment /
Environmental Technology and Management
Water Treatment; Waste water treatment; Sustainable Environmental
technology, Solid waste management
Project Title
Development of water treatment regent using red mud wastes
Research Project Summary
Advanced water treatment technologies have been sought to address the
challenges that water industries are facing. One of them is ferrate(VI) which
has unique properties (vs. strong oxidising potential and simultaneous
generation of ferric coagulating species). A number of ferrate(VI) investigations
have been carried out and have demonstrated that the ferrate(VI) possesses
superior properties to those of the currently used water treatment chemicals
and has great potential to be used to achieve high efficient performance.
Red mud is a waste by-product of bauxite processing using the Bayer
process. Of the principal components of red mud, the iron compounds are
generally the major phase constituents. The world-wide production of red mud
is currently ca. 7x107 tonnes per annum. The method of disposal of these
waste materials is mainly by lagooning or dumping at sea, causing heavy
environmental pollution. In addition, since industry has to bear high costs for
the disposal, the development of new routes to exploit these waste materials
for any application is a major area of research currently.
In view of the foregoing, that low cost materials are needed to prepare
ferrate(VI) and green / low cost management is demanded for the disposal of
red mud wastes, it is logical to study the potential use of red mud as raw
material to prepare ferrate(VI) for waste water treatment and environmental
remediation and this is the primary focus of this project.
The proposed research aims to develop a new route to prepare ferrate(VI)
using waste red mud as a raw material and assess the resulting product for
waste water treatment and environmental remediation.
A research consortium between Glasgow Caledonian University and
Glasgow University is to be set up to study the use of red mud waste as raw
material to prepare a novel water treatment chemical – ferrate(VI) for waste
water treatment. A successful outcome of this research is a major technical
breakthrough to prepare a novel water treatment chemical at affordable cost for
water industry to use and therefore provide Scottish based industries a priority
to prepare and sell the developed technology, which should help them to
secure a leading share in the international market of water supply and
treatment. Moreover, the research findings will strengthen Scottish universities
world-leading status in chemical and water engineering research and could
secure our future research funding from research councils and industries
outside Scotland. Finally, the proposed research should contribute to the
Scottish Government’s commitment in achieving green environment and zero
waste production.
Supervisory Team
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Director of Studies : Prof JiaQian Jiang
Supervisor: Dr Justin Hargreaves, Glasgow University
Staff Contact
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Prof JiaQian Jiang, jiaqian.jiang@gcu.ac.uk