TITLE:
Comparative Kinetics of Iron Ore Dissolution in Aqueous HCl-HNO3 System
AUTHORS:
Onyedika Gerald, Nwoko Christopher, Oguarah Ayebatonworio, Ogwuegbu Martin
KEYWORDS:
Kinetics; Dissolution; Iron Ore; Shrinkage Core Model
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering,
Vol.1 No.4,
July
23,
2013
ABSTRACT: The dissolution kinetics of the dissolution of iron ore in aqueous HCl/HNO3solution was studied. The elemental composition of the ore was carried out using the inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrophotometer (ICP-OES). The result showed that the iron ore contain; Fe (62.1%), O (21.7%), Cu (11.1%), Mg (2.39%), Na (1.51%), Mn (1.47%), K (0.78%), Ca (0.58%) and Zn (0.01%). It was determined that the dissolution rate increased with increased solution concentration, temperature, time and decreased particle size of the ore. The optimum conditions for effective dissolution of 88% of the iron ore were found to be 8 Mof the solution, 353 K, 100 min and ore particle size of less than 75 μm. The kinetic evaluation of the dissolution process was studied using three different shrinking core models (SCM); Film diffusion: kft =XB; interfacial chemical reaction krt =1－(1－XB)1/3and ash/product layer diffusion :for spherical materials was performed. The results obtained showed that the rate determining step for the dissolution process was the product layer diffusion and therefore, the reaction followed this mechanism. The apparent activation energy (Ea) and the order of reaction were found to be 20.48 kJ/mol and 0.7 respectively.