LEACHING

Even if you don't know the definition for the chemical process of leaching,
you've probably witnessed it take place. If you've ever brewed a cup of tea or
made instant coffee, for instance, you've seen leaching in action. Leaching is just
a process of mass transfer that occurs by extracting a substance from a solid
material that has come into contact with a liquid; that is the separation of a
solute from solid mixture by dissolving it in a liquid phase.
In leaching, the liquid is very important, as it facilitates the ability to remove, or
extract, a given substance from a solid matrix (i.e. material). This definition can
be broken down by using a simple example of making tea.
You go into your kitchen and decide you would like to make a hot cup of green
tea. Of course you know that a green tea bag, hot water, and a cup is needed to
make the tea. Shown in the diagram below, we can relate each of these
components to the definition of leaching: (1) the tea bag would be our solid
matrix, (2) the green tea would be our desired substance to be extracted, and
(3) the hot water would be our liquid source.

Diagram 1: Example of Making Green Tea To Illustrate Leaching

Going back to our story on making tea, you proceed with boiling water and add
it to a cup. As you steep your green tea bag in the hot water, what do you notice?
The water not only changes colour, but more importantly, green tea is extracting
from the tea bag into the water. After steeping for a few minutes, you sip from
your mug and taste not just hot water, but delicious green tea, too.
Although making tea is a very well known process, it's also an ideal example of
how leaching works. You took a solid matrix, like the tea bag, introduced it to a
liquid, in this instance the hot water, and extracted green tea, or a substance, to
make a cup of tea. Now that we understand what leaching is, let's look at the
process in more detail, specifically regarding commercial applications.

The Leaching Process

Within the chemical industry, the process of leaching is commonly referred to
as extraction. Let's look at the diagram below of how the leaching, or extraction,
process works.
First, the solvent comes into contact with the solid matrix. A solvent is usually a
liquid that functions to dissolve a substance or solute. A solute is the substance
being dissolved by a solvent. Thus, the solvent would be the liquid and the solute
would be the substance you would like to extract from the solid matrix. Again,
referring to our tea example, the solute would be your green tea extracted while
the solvent would be the hot water.

Diagram 2: Step-by-Step Leaching Process For Chemical Industry Use

Next, the solvent travels through the solid matrix, separating the substance, or
solute, from this matrix so that it can be collected. This step is commonly
referred to as percolation (which is really just a fancy word for filtering) of the
liquid through a fixed bed of the solid. You are essentially filtering out, or
separating, the solute you desire from the solid matrix, using a solvent.
Therefore, three processes are involved for any leaching operation to take place,
namely:
I. Contacting solvent and solid to effect a transfer of a solute, i.e. change
of phase of solute as it dissolves in the solvent;
II. The separation of the solution from the remaining solid (washing), i.e.
the diffusion of the solute through the solvent in the pores of the solid
to the outside of the particles; and
III. The transfer of the solute from the solution in contact with the
particles to the bulk of the solution.
Leaching is therefore a solid-liquid separation process of extracting substances
from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid, naturally. In other words, it is the
extraction of a soluble constituent (called the solute) from a solid by means of a
solvent. In leaching, when an undesirable component is removed from a solid
with water, the process is called washing.

Principle of Leaching
Leaching operations can be carried out under batch and semi-batch, as well as
under completely continuous condition. Two major handling techniques are
used: spraying or trickling the liquid over the solid, and immersing the solid
completely in the liquid. Leaching usually operates at an elevated temperature
to increase the solubility of the solute in the solvent.

Feed to a leaching system typically is a solid mixture to be separated, consisting

of basically, a (usually desirable) soluble compound (solute), A and an inert
insoluble carrier material, B. The feed usually must be prepared by grinding or
chopping. A liquid solvent, C is then added to the mixture to selectively
dissolve A. The desired material dissolves (to some extent) and so leaves when
the liquid is drawn off as overflow.

The overflow from the stage is free of solids and consists of only solvent C and
dissolved A, as the desired solid goes to the liquid phase. The underflow consists
of slurry of liquid of similar composition in the liquid overflow and solid carrier B,
as the undesired solid remains. In an ideal leaching equilibrium stage, all the
solute is dissolved by the solvent; none of the carrier is dissolved.

Invariably in a typical leaching operation, in order to separate the desired solute

constituent or remove an undesirable solute component from the solid phase,
the solid is contacted with a liquid phase. The two phases are in intimate contact
and the solute or solutes can diffuse from the solid to the liquid phase, resulting
in a separation of the components originally in the solid.
The method of extraction depends on the proportion of soluble constituents
present, it’s distribution throughout the solid, the nature of the solid and the
particle size.

Uses of Leaching Process

In the chemical processing industry, leaching process is employed either for the
production of a concentrated solution of a valuable solid material or in order to
free an insoluble solid from a soluble material with which it is contaminated.
Leaching therefore has a variety of commercial applications.

The metallurgical industries are perhaps the largest and most typical users of
the leaching operation, as most useful minerals occur in mixtures with large
proportions of undesirable constituents and leaching of the valuable materials
is a separation method which is frequently used. For example, copper minerals
are preferentially dissolved from certain of their ores by leaching with sulphuric
acid or ammoniacal solutions; and gold is separated from its ores with the aid of
sodium cyanide solutions. Leaching similarly plays an important role in the
metallurgical processing of aluminium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and zinc.

Also, many naturally occurring organic products are separated from their
original structures by leaching. For instance, sugar is leached from sugar beets
using hot water, vegetable oils are recovered from seeds such as soybean,
cotton seed and palm kernel, by leaching with organic solvents, tanning is
dissolved out of tree barks by leaching with water and many pharmaceutical
products are likewise recovered from plant roots and leaves. Tea and coffee are
prepared both domestically and industrially by leaching operations.

Factors Influencing the Rate of Extraction

There are four important factors to be considered:
a. Particle size: The smaller the particle size, the greater the interfacial area
between the solid and the liquid, and therefore the higher the rate of
extraction. However, the production of a large amount of fine particle
should be avoided as it may impede the flow of solvent, thus reducing the
rate of extraction.
b. Solvent: The solvent should be such that would selectively dissolve the
solute and it’s viscosity should be sufficiently low for it to circulate freely.
c. Temperature: The solubility of the solute being extracted will increase
with temperature to give a higher rate of extraction. Also, the diffusion
coefficient will increase resulting in higher rate of extraction.
d. Agitation of the fluid: Agitation of the solvent is important because it
increases diffusion rate and therefore increases the rate of extraction.