Thermal effect of acidification in heap bioleaching of chalcopyrite
Heap bioleaching is well acknowledged as the prevailing technology to treat low grade mineral ores, such as chalcopyrite, the widespread leading source of copper. Previous studies have revealed that acidic condition is favourable for most of functional bacteria. Therefore the low pH leaching solution is selected. Although heat transfer is widely concerned due to the sensitivity of temperature to the bacteria which dominate the catalytic redox reaction, the thermal effect of acidification receives little attention. In this study, a model based on a pilotscale experiment was established. The heat production of acidification was compared with flow rate, pH of leaching solution and heap porosity. The 3D thermal distribution was simulated to provide a straight insight into this issue. The thermal contribution of acidification was evaluated in correlation with leaching efficiency of copper. The results indicate that the thermal effect of acidification ascribed to the structure of heap and the property of leaching solution can significantly influence the leaching outcome, which implies that the thermal effect of acidification is very important in heap bioleaching of chalcopyrite and should be taken into serious consideration.
heap bioleaching acidification chalcopyrite
Zhenyi Zhang Koichi Suto Chihiro Inoue Masataka Ohara Taro Kamiya Xuan Zhao
Division of Environmental Technology, INET, Tsinghua University, China Graduate School of Environmen Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Japan JOGMEC, Japan Division of Environmental Technology, INET, Tsinghua University, China
国际会议
The 19th International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium(第19届国际生物湿法冶金大会 IBS2011)
长沙
英文
85-88
2011-09-18（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）