Kinetic study of high-pressure acid leaching of Mg and Ni from serpentine

Abstract

Inner Mongolian serpentine ore was subjected to sulfuric acid leaching tests, and the effects of the leaching process parameters on the leaching efficiency of different metals were investigated. The leaching efficiency of Mg, Fe, Al, Ni, and Co reaches 93.98%, 60.09%, 82.08%, 90.58%, and 94.06%, respectively, under the leaching conditions of 5 mol/L H₂SO₄, liquid/solid ratio of 4 mL/g, and leaching temperature 100 °C. Hence, the valuable metals in serpentine were effectively recovered by sulfuric acid leaching. The leaching behaviors of Mg, Fe, and a small amount of Al were analyzed using X-ray diffraction. The results show that the unreacted Mg and Fe remained as MgFe₂O₄, and Al formed Al₂Si₂O₅(OH)₄ in the leaching residue. The kinetics of Mg and Ni in the leaching process was studied respectively. The leaching kinetics of Mg conformed to the shrinking core model with an activation energy of 16.95 kJ/mol, which was controlled by the combination of the diffusion and chemical reaction. The leaching kinetics of Ni accorded with the Avrami equation with an activation energy of 11.57 kJ/mol, which was controlled by diffusion. In the study, the valuable metal elements were extracted from serpentine minerals with high efficiency and low cost, which possessed important practical values.

Keywords

serpentine / sulfuric acid / leaching mechanism / thermodynamics / leaching kinetics

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