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EXTRACTION / LEACHING
CHAPTER / CONTENT
Rates of Leaching
Calculation in Leaching
Introduction to Leaching Process
The major difference between Leaching and LLE centers about the difficulty
to transport the solid or the solid slurry from stage to stage.
The two phases are in intimate contact and the solute or solutes can diffuse from
the solid to the liquid phase, which causes a separation of the components
originally in the solid.
An important such process is to leach sugar from sugar beets with hot water.
For ‘instant’ coffee, ground roasted coffee is leached with water and soluble tea
is produced by water leaching of tea leaves.
In metal ores, the desired metal components usually occur with a large amount
of undesirable constituents and leaching is used to obtain these metal
components in the form of metal salts.
E.g.: Copper salts are leached by dissolving raw copper ores by using sulfuric
acid or ammoniacal solutions.
E.g.: Nickel salts are leached using sulfuric acid – ammonia – oxygen mixures.
PRINCIPLES OF LEACHING
The solvent must be transferred from the bulk solvent solution to the
surface of the solids.
The solute then diffuses through the solid solvent mixture to the surface
of the particle.
The rate of the solvent transfer from the bulk solution to the solid surface
is quite rapid.
However, the rate of transfer of the solvent into the solid can be rather
slow or rapid.
This solvent transfer usually occurs initially when the particle are first
contacted with the solvent.
Principles of Leaching
The rate of diffusion of the solute through the solid and solvent to the
surface of the solid is often the controlling resistance in the overall leaching
process and can depend on a number of different factors.
If the solid is made of porous and solid structure with the solute and
solvent in the pores in the solid, the diffusion through the porous solid can
be described by an effective diffusivity.
The leaching of sugar is then similar to the washing process, where in the
remaining cells, sugar must diffuse out through the cell walls. With
soybeans, whole bean cannot be leached effectively. The rolling and flaking
of the soybeans ruptures cell walls so that the solvent can more easily
penetrate by capillary action.
The resistance to mass transfer to the solute from the solid surface to the
bulk solvent is generally quite small compared to the resistance to the
diffusion within the solid itself.
Rate of leaching when dissolving a solid
When a material is being dissolved from the solid to the solvent solution,
however, the rate of mass transfer from the solid surface to the liquid is the
controlling factor.
The equation for this can be derived as follows from a batch system.
The rate of mass transfer of the solute A being dissolved to the solution of
volume V in m3 is:
whe re
NA kg mol of A dissolving to the solution pe r se cond
k L c AS c A Eq.1
NA A the surfaceare aof particle s in m 2
A kL masstansfe rcoe fficie nt in m/s
c AS saturationsolubility of the solid solute A in the
solution in kg mol/m 3
c A conce ntration of A in the solution at time t se cin
kg mol/m 3
Rate of leaching when dissolving a solid
c AS c A
e k L A V t
c AS c A0
The solution approaches a saturated condition exponentially.
Often the interfacial area A will increase during the extraction if the
external surface becomes very irregular.
A time of 3.11 hour is needed to leach 80% of the available solute from the
solid.
Using Figure 5.3 – 13 for a sphere, for ES = 0.20, a value of DAeff t/a2 = 0.112
is obtained, where DAeff is the effective diffusivity in mm2/s, t is time in s, and
a is radius in mm.
For the same fraction ES, the value of DAeff t/a2 is constant for a different
size. Hence,
t1a22
t2 2 Eq.3
a1
t2 3.11
1.5 2
2
1.75 h
2.0 22
Methods of operating in leaching
Both continuous and stage wise types of equipment are used in steady or
unsteady state operations.
For example, copper is leached by sulfuric acid from sulfides ore by leach
liquor is pumped over a pile of crushed ore and collected at the ground level
as it drains from the heap.
Types of Equipments for Leaching
Used in beet sugar industry and is also used for extraction of tanning
extracts from the tanbark, extraction of pharmaceuticals from barks and
seeds and other processes.
The seeds are usually dehulled first, sometimes precooked, often partially
dried and rolled or flaked.
When the solid can be ground fine abou 200 mesh (0.074 mm), it can kept
in suspension by small amounts of agitation.
Sufficient solvent is present so that all the solute in the entering solid dissolved
in the solvent.
The solute in the entering solid dissolved completely in the first stage.
The settled solid leaving a stage always contains some liquid in which dissolved
solids is present.
The amount of solution retained with the solids in the settling portion of each
stage may depend the density and viscosity of liquid in which the solid is
suspended.
kg B kg solid lb solid
N
kg A kg C kg solution lb solution
For overflow, N = 0
Process flow
Example 1
In a single – stage leaching of soybean oil from flaked soybeans with hexane, 100
kg of soybean containing 20 wt% oil is leached with 100 kg of fresh hexane solvent.
The value of N for the slurry underflow is essentially constant at 1.5 kg insoluble
solid/kg solution retained.
Calculate the amounts and compositions of the overflow V1 and the underflow
slurry L1 leaving the stage.
Single – stage calculations
Solution 1
Information given:
Solution 1
Mass of C = 0 kg C = 0 kg
A A 20
y A0 1.0
L0 A C 20 0
B B 80
N0 4.0
L0 A C 20 0
Solution 1
Mass of A = 0 A = 0 kg
Mass of B = 0 B = 0 kg
A A 0
x2 0
V2 A C 0 100
B B 0
N2 0
V2 A C 0 100
Solution 1
L0 V2 L1 V1 M
20 100 M M 120 kg
Component A balance:
L0 y A0 V2 x A2 Mx AM
201.0 1000 120x AM
x AM 0.167
Single – stage calculations
Solution 1
Solid balance:
B N 0 L0 N1 L1 N M M
N 0 L0 N M M
420 N M 120 N M 0.667
Construct straight vertical line through point M in order to find value V1 and
L1
Single – stage calculations
Solution 1
4
L0
3.5
3
2.5
N
2 L1 N versus y A
1.5
1
M
0.5
V1 N versus x A
0
0 V2 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
x A, y A
From figure,
Solution 1
Solid balance:
B N 0 L0 N1 L1 N M M
N1 L1 N M M
1.5L1 0.667 120 L1 53.36 kg
Single – stage calculations
Solution 1
V1 120 L1 Eq.1
V1 120 53.36 V1 66.64 kg
Multi – stage counter current Leaching
Process flow
The ideal stages are numbered in the direction of the solids or underflow stream.
The solvent (C) – solute (A) phase or V phase is the liquid phase that overflows
continuously from stage to stage countercurrently to the solid phase, and it
dissolves solute as it moves along.
The slurry phase L composed of inert solid (B) and liquid phase of A and C is the
continuous underflow from each stage.
Composition of V – denoted by x
Composition of L – denoted by y
Assumption: The solid B is insoluble and is not lost in the liquid V phase.
L0 y A0 VN 1 x AN 1 LN y AN V1 x A1 Mx AM Comp. A balance
B N 0 L0 N N LN N M M Solid balance
Multi – stage counter current Leaching
Example 2
A continuous countercurrent multistage system is to be used to leach oil from meal
by benzene solvent (B3).
The process is to treat 2000 kg/h of inert solid meal (B) containing 800 kg oil (A)
and also 50 kg benzene (C).
The inlet flow per hour of fresh solvent mixture contains 1310 kg benzene and 20
kg oil. The leached solids are to contain 120 kg oil.
Data (B3) are tabulated below as N kg inert solid B/kg solution and yA kg oil A/kg
solution
Calculate the amounts and concentrations of the stream leaving the process and the
number of stages required.
Multi – stage counter current Leaching
Solution 2
Information given:
Solution 2
Information given:
Solution 2
Mass of C = 50 kg/h
A A 800 800
y A0 0.94
L0 A C 800 50 850
B B 2000 2000
N0 2.35
L0 A C 800 50 850
Solution 2
Mass of A = 20 kg/h
Mass of B = 0 kg/h
A A 20 20
xN 1 0.015
VN 1 A C 20 1310 1330
B B 0
N N 1 0
VN 1 A C 20 1310
Solution 2
Mass of C = ?? kg/h
NN
Slope of graph,
yN
B
N N LN B 2000
16.67 N 16.67 y
yN A A 120
LN
Solution 2
3
LN
2 L0
1
0
VN 1
-0.4 -0.2 -1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
N
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
x A, y A
Multi – stage counter current Leaching
Solution 2
Component A balance:
L0 y A0 VN 1 xN 1 Mx AM
8500.94 13300.015 2180x AM
x AM 0.376
Multi – stage counter current Leaching
Solution 2
Solid balance:
B N 0 L0 N N LN N M M
N 0 L0 N M M
2.35850 N M 2180 N M 0.916
3
LN
2 L0
M
1
V1
0 VN 1
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
-1
N
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
x A, y A
From figure,
Solution 2
V1 2180 LN Eq.1
Component A balance:
LN y N V1 x1 Mx AM
LN 0.12 V1 0.592 2180 0.376
Solution 2
V1 2180 LN Eq.1
V1 2180 997.62
V1 1182.38 kg
Connect L0 with V1 & LN with VN+1. The cross line – operating point.
Solution 2
Construct the stages:
3
LN L3 L2
2 L1 L0
M
1
V1
0 VN 1
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
-1
N
-2
-3
-4
-5
P -6
-7
x A, y A