The sulfuric acid leaching of Bayer electrofilter fines: A practical kinetical approach

Electrofilter fines, which are by-products of the Bayer process for the production of alumina from bauxite, were characterized to evaluate the alumina that was potentially extractable with sulfuric acid. Acid leaching is carried out at different concentrations of sulfuric acid, at different temperatures, pulp densities, and times, to dissolve gibbsite and transition aluminas. The result is an aluminum sulfate solution. This article reports on a study of the kinetics of the leaching reaction at 90DGC with two pulp densities: 10% and 30%.