University of Baghdad

College of engineering
Chemical engineering department

Discussion:- ABDULLAH SAEED

Leaching Process:- Leaching is a mass transfer operation in which we

have a solid material which either contains components which are
valuable to us or components which are considered an impurity of the
solid, no matter what the case, such components are called solute. We
take a liquid which is called a solvent and contact it intimately with the
solid in order to extract the solute from the solid and bring it into the
liquid thus effecting a separation. Leaching is a solid-liquid extraction
process.

The process of leaching generally concerns with processes where the

solid is inert and contains soluble solute which is extracted from the
inert solid with the help of chemical reaction; for example, leaching of
valuable metals from waste materials by using sulphuric acid. The
process of leaching is extremely common in metallurgical industries.

If we proceed to talk about the factors that influence the rate of

dissolution of the material in liquid for leaching to take place then there
are number of factors that can be distinguished as physical-chemical
and biological. The physical factor is associated with the way solid is
exposed to liquid for leaching to occur. The degree of leachability can
be varied by checking for the dissolved constituents at the time of
retention. On the contrary, chemical changes are somewhat associated
with the chemical reactions such as carbonation or oxidation that take
place when mixture is exposed to solvent. Thus, leaching shows
dependency on:

• Nature possessed by the structure of solid.

• The size of the particle and how it is distributed

• The degree of solubility of solute in the solvent.

• The operating temperature.

• The degree of diffusion of solute in the solvent.

Leaching occur,s in two steps:

1-Leacting: contacting solvent and solid to affect a transfer of a solute

(i.e the three steps dissolve, internal and external diffusion).

2-Washing: separation of solution from the remaining solid. Leaching

efficiency increases with the increases of number of washing.

we notice that from graph, for the water only the conductivity is equal
to zero because the Deionized pure water is a poor electrical conductor.
Also, we notice that the conductivity starts to increase (C4>C3>C2>C1)
this is because the concentration increases because the weight. This
mean that the relation between conductivity and concentration is
direct relation.