Kinetic Studies of Copper Leaching From E‐Waste Using Organic Acids

ABSTRACT The hydrometallurgy processing of copper from electronic waste (e‐waste) by citric and malic acids was studied as a friendly leaching process. Influencing factors, for example, contact time, temperature, pulp density, and acid concentration, were studied. These studies revealed that 98.07% of copper can be dissolved by using 0.5 g e‐waste/100 mL of 3% citric acid at 70°C for 15 h. Whereas, 100% can be leached by using 0.5 g/100 mL of 1% malic acid at 80°C for 20 h. Also, the mechanism of leaching by these acids was studied and found that the leaching process is performed by acidification and complexion reactions. Finally, kinetic studies of copper leaching were studied using the modified shrinking core models.