In a modified sulphate process for making
titanium dioxide, based on an acid
attack of a
titanium-containing mineral such as
Ilmenite and / or titaniferous slags, a method for treating an acidic
liquid waste (6,6a) of a
titanium dioxide production process via sulphate includes two concentration stages (S10,S20) comprising respective steps of bubbling (S11,S21) a first and a second gas (11,22) into the acidic
liquid waste (6,6a,16,16a), carried out in a first reactor (41,61) at respective first and second process temperatures of at least 90°C and 150°C, respectively, the second gas containing, in particular,
carbon dioxide, so as to retain obtain
solid metal sulphates (23) in the first reactor (61) and a gaseous
stream (24) in which sulphur
trioxide SO3 and vapours of H2SO4 are present, together with water and
carbon dioxide, a
selective adsorption phase (S22) of SO3 / H2SO4 into a water solution (26) progressively concentrating in a second reactor (91) connected to first reactor (61) via a feed duct (92) arranged to convey gas form the first to the second rector (61,91), up to a predetermined concentration, forming a concentrated sulphuric acid (28), in which a residual gaseous
stream (27) after absorption can be further fractionated to recycle the
carbon dioxide into the carbon dioxide-containing gas
stream (22) fed to the
effluent mass, while the
solid metal sulphates are recovered once the acidic
liquid waste mass is exhausted. A
filtration step (S12) can further be provided of filtering the partially concentrated liquid acidic waste coming from first concentration stage so as to cause the
solid metal sulphates (13) settled during the first bubbling step, mainly including
Ferrous sulphate to be separated.