Sulfuric acid leaching kinetics of South African chromite

The sulfuric acid leaching kinetics of South African chromite was investigated. The negative influence of a solid product layer constituted of a silicon-rich phase and chromium-rich sulfate was eliminated by crushing the chromite and by selecting proper leaching conditions. The dimensionless change in specific surface area and the conversion rate of the chromite were observed to exhibit a proportional relationship. A modified shrinking particle model was developed to account for the change in reactive surface area, and the model was fitted to experimental data. The resulting model was observed to describe experimental findings very well. Kinetics analysis revealed that the leaching process is controlled by a chemical reaction under the employed experimental conditions and the activation energy of the reaction is 48 kJ·mol^-1.