Kinetic investigation on the recovery of copper and cobalt from sulphuric acid plant electrofilter dust

Abstract Several waste dusts collecting equipment options are available for air pollution control in plants, the most commonly used being the electrofilter. Industrial wastes such as electrofilter dust are evaluated as a secondary resource owing to their critical metal contents. In this work, the results of studies on the extraction of cobalt and copper from electrofilter dust generated in sulphuric acid production plants are presented. The chemical and mineralogical compositions of the dust were investigated using instrumental analytical methods. The electrofilter dust consists of the main phases of haematite, quartz, and anhydrite. Also, electrofilter dust contains 1.43% copper and 0.28% cobalt. It was found that the process of copper and cobalt dissolution is characterized by chemical kinetics. When the acid leaching was applied in 1 M sulphuric acid in the presence of 0.05 M hydrogen peroxide, with the temperature 80°C and 2 h of leaching time, stirring rate of 200 rpm and liquid to solid ratio 20/1 v/w, cobalt and copper extraction achieved 88% and 98% respectively. As a result of studying the kinetics of acid leaching with sulphuric acid in the presence of oxidant hydrogen peroxide, activation energy and the type of reaction to chemical controlled model were determined.