Kinetics of nitric acid leaching of low-grade rare earth elements from phosphogypsum

Abstract

Phosphogypsum (PG) is a potential resource for rare earth elements (REEs). Several studies have been carried out on REE leaching from PG. However, few in-depth studies have investigated the kinetics of this leaching process. In this study, the leaching kinetics of REEs from PG in nitric acid at different temperatures were explored in depth. The experiments show that the maximum leaching recovery for ς REE was 58.5%, 75.9% and 83.4% at 30, 60 and 80 °C, respectively. Additionally, among La, Ce, Y and Nd, Y had the highest leaching rate. A new shrinking core model (SCM) based on the dissolution reaction of a cylindrical solid particle with interfacial transfer and diffusion across the product layer as the rate-controlling step was deduced and could well fit the leaching process of REEs from PG. The activation energies for the leaching of La, Ce, Y and Nd were determined on the basis of the new cylindrical SCM. In summary, the cylindrical SCM was a more suitable fitting model than the spherical SCM, and the interfacial transfer and diffusion across the product layer were the rate-controlling step for REE leaching from the PG sample.

Keywords

phosphogypsum / rare earth elements / leaching kinetics / shrinking core model / nitric acid

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