Particle Size Analysis of Morowali Nickel Laterite on Atmospheric Citric Acid Leaching
Keywords:
Particle size, Atmospheric leaching, Citric acid, Nickel laterite, HydrometallurgyAbstract
Atmospheric Pressure Acid Leaching (APAL) is one of nickel laterite processing which has a big potential to be applied in industry. The leaching process is significantly influenced by the particle size effect, agitation leaching speed, and leaching time. This research demonstrated that particle size has important role to determine leaching performances of nickel laterite. The main focus of this research is to study the effect of particle size of Morowali nickel laterite in order to increase nickel recovery on atmospheric citric acid leaching. Particle sizes of nickel laterite used on this experiment are 50 mesh, 100 mesh, 150 mesh, 200 mesh and range of leaching time of 10, 20, 30, 60, 90, 120 minutes. Other constant operating conditions applied in this study are concentration of citric acid (M), agitation speed (rpm), leaching temperature (oC). The results shown that the amount recovery of nickel tend to increases with smaller particle size of nickel laterite. But this research work indicated that particle size 100 mesh achieved good recovery of nickel at 2824 ppm.
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