MT Unit 4 Leaching
MT Unit 4 Leaching
MT Unit 4 Leaching
solid-liquid extraction
(leaching)
OVER VIEW
Introduction to leaching.
principles of leaching
Leaching equipments.
Principles of Continuous Countercurrent
Leaching.
CALCULATE material balance and number of
ideal stages for multistage leaching.
LEACHING
• Leaching” is a unit operation in which a solid mixture
is contacted with a liquid solvent for removal of one
or more soluble constituents of the solid mixture
• It is generally necessary to recover or separate either
by evaporation or any other means the component
of new system i.e., solute and solvent which was
extracted.
• It is important because it is generally necessary for
product the most economical scheme for leaching
process.
LEACHING
Leaching differs very little from the washing of filtered
solids and leaching equipment strongly resembles the
washing section of various filters.
In leaching the amount of solute material removed is
often greater than in ordinary filtration washing and the
properties of the solids may change considerably during
the leaching operation.
Coarse, hard or granular feed solids may disintegrate into
pulp when their content of soluble material is removed.
Examples of leaching operation
Two types
• Through stationary solid
beds
• Through Moving bed
leaching
Through stationary solid beds
Diffusion Battery
• If the solvent used is volatile, then closed vessels should be
operated under pressure.
• Pressure is also needed to force solvent through beds of some
less permeable solids.
• A Series of such pressure tanks operated with counter current
solvent flow is known as a diffusion battery.
Heap Leaching
Heap Leaching
• Then as these partially extracted solids rise through the left hand side
of the machine a stream of pure solvent is sprayed on them to obtain
a dilute solution of the oil (half miscella) at the bottom of the
chamber.
• This pure solvent percolates counter-currently through them and
collects in the left hand sump which is then passed to the Half
Miscella storage tank.
• The fully extracted solids are then dumped from the baskets at the
top of the elevator to the hoppers from which they are removed by
Screw Conveyors.
• Usually the conveyor speed is one revolution per hour.
Heap Leaching
• Heap Leaching is a technique where run-of-mine or crushed
(generally >5 mm) and/or
• Agglomerated ores are stacked over an engineered
impermable pad, wetted with lixiviant (solvent) chemicals
under atmospheric conditions and leachate (metal loaded
solutions) are collected for metal reovery processes.
• Because percolation of the lixiviant solution through the ore
is acheived under gravity
• Atmosperic conditions, completion of metal recovery
requires longer time periods (weeks to months, even several
years in bio-processes) for each pad loading sequence
compared to tank leaching (hours to days).
• Upon completion of heap leaching, the processed ore stack is
generally decommissioned in place
Heap Leaching
Solids that form impermeable beds, either before or during leaching, are
treated by dispersing them in the solvent by mechanical agitation in a tank
or flow mixer.
The leached residue is then separated from the strong solution by settling
or filtration.
Small quantities can be leached batch wise in this way in an agitated vessel
with a bottom draw off for settled residue. Continuous counter current
leaching is obtained with several gravity thickeners connected in series.
engineering-resource.com
Moving Bed Leaching
engineering-resource.com
Bollman Extractor (or) Basket Extractor
• One of the very oldest continuous extractor and still listed among
the best is the Bollman Extractor.
• The Bollman Extractor was invented by H. Bollman in Germany in
1920.
• Bollman Extractor is mainly used for the recovery of additional oil
from the residues obtained after mechanical pressing of solids.
• The Bollman Extractor essentially consists of a vapour tight vertical
chamber in which a series of perforated baskets are attached to a
chain conveyor.
• The baskets are provided with perforations at the bottom.
• At the top right hand corner of the extractor solids are conveyed in
to the perforated baskets.
• The baskets are loaded with flaky solids.
Bollman Extractor (or) Basket Extractor
• Tube coils afford one of the cheapest means of obtaining heat transfer
surface.
• They are usually made by rolling lengths of copper, steel or alloy tubing
into helixes or doublehelix coils in which inlet and outlets are
conveniently located side by side.
• Helical coils of either type are frequently installed in vertical cylindrical
vessels with or without an agitator, although free space is provided
between the coil and the vessel wall for circulation.
• When such coils are used with mechanical agitation, the vertical axis of
the agitator usually corresponds to the vertical axis of the cylinder.
• However very limited data are available for predicting heat transfer
coefficient from submerged coil to the surrounding fluid in natural
• convection although the coefficients are undoubtedly lower.
• A mechanical agitation can improve the heat transfer coefficient
between fluid in the agitated vessel and the coil.
AGITATED VESSEL
Methods of Leaching
1. Single- stage leaching
2. Multistage leaching
Single- stage leaching
Let
B - Mass insoluble in solids to be leached
F - Mass (A and C ) in solids to be leached
NF - (Mass B/Mass A+C) in solids to be leached
yF - (Mass C /Mass A+C) in solids to be leached
Ro - Mass solution (A+C) in leaching solvent
xo – Mass C/ mass (A+C) in leaching solvent
E1 - Mass (A+C) in leached solid
N1 - Mass B/ mass (A+C) in the leached solid
y1 - (Mass C /Mass A+C) in the leached solid
x1 - (Mass C /Mass A+C) in the leach solution
R1 - Mass solution (A+C) in the leach solution
Consider a single stage leaching operation in which the
solids to be leached are contacted with the leaching
solvent and then insoluble phases are physically
separated and effluent streams are withdrawn as
leached solid and leach solution
For no solid in the overflow and insolublity of B in A
Mass of insoluble (B) Mass of insoluble in the
In leached solid = solid to be leached
Material balance of B;
B = NF .F = E1 N1 ---------------1
Material balance of C
C in solids to be leached + C in leaching solvent =
C in leached solids + C in leach solution
F .yF + Ro xo = E1 y1 + R1 x1 -------------------2
Material balance of a solvent (A)
F .(1-yF ) + Ro (1-xo)= E1 (1-y1)+ R1 (1-x1 ) ----------3
Material balance of (A + C)
F + Ro = E1 + R1 = M1------------------4
Nm1 - Mass insolubles / Mass A+C) totally
Nm1 = B / F + Ro
= B / M1
From eq2
F .yF + Ro xo = E1 y1 + R1 x1 = M1 ym
F .yF + Ro xo = M1 ym
ym = F .yF + Ro xo / M1 M1 = F + Ro
ym = F .yF + Ro xo / F + Ro
Multi –stage cross current leaching
R1,x1 R2, x2 R3,x3 (Composited leach
Solution
For Stage ; 2
E1 + Ro2 = E2 + R2 = M2 --------------- 5
engineering-resource.com
Steps for identifying no. of ideal stages
• Equilibrium
• Operating Line:
• Constant and Variable underflow:
• Number of Ideal stages for constant underflow:
engineering-resource.com
Multi –stage counter current leaching
Solute:
As usual, the operating line passes through the points (xa, ya) and
(xb, yb), and if the flow rates are constant, the slope is L/V.
CONSTANT AND VARIABLE
UNDERFLOW
• Two cases are to be considered.
• If the density and viscosity of the solution change
considerably with solute concentration, the solids from the
lower-numbered stages may retain more liquid than those
from the higher-numbered stages.
• The slope of the operating line varies from unit to unit.
• If the mass of solution retained by the solid is independent
of concentration, then Ln is constant and the operating line
is straight. – called as constant solution underflow.
• If the underflow is constant, so is the overflow.
• Constant underflow and variable underflow are given
separate consideration.
NUMBER OF IDEAL STAGES FOR
CONSTANT UNDERFLOW
NF = 1000/(A + C) = 2.35
yF = 400/425 = 0.94
0 0.7 1.0
Oil in the final extract ?
N Np+1 = 0/A+C = 0
N Np+1 = 0/A+C = 0
Oil balance:
• The point x1 = 0.60, y2 = 0.408 is at one end of the operating line
for the remaining stages.
• To determine an intermediate point on the operating line, choose
xn = 0.30.
• By an overall balance,
EXCERCISE1 (LEACHING)
We wish to treat 1000 kg/hr (wet basis) of meal (D) that
contains 0.20 wt frac oil (A) and no benzene (S). The
inlet solvent is pure benzene and flows at 662
kg/hr. We desire an underflow product that is 0.04 wt
frac oil. Temperature and pressure are constant, and
the equilibrium data are given in Table 1. Find the
outlet extract concentration and the number of
equilibrium stages needed in a countercurrent
leaching system.
Test Data For Extraction Of Oil From Meal With Benzene