Leaching of silicon from ferronickel (FeNi) smelting slag with sodium hydroxide solution at atmospheric pressure

The present paper reports the leaching behavior of silicon from ferronickel slag under atmospheric pressure using sodium hydroxide solution. The effect of several experimental variables, namely concentration of leaching agent, operating temperature, stirring speed, and slurry density was investigated. The leaching kinetic was also investigated by using shrinking core model. It was determined that leaching of silicon from the slag was controlled by diffusion through product layer, although the activation energy was found to be 85.84 kJ/mol, which was unusually high for such a diffusion-controlled process.