Enhancement of Mass Transfer Rate and Diminution of the Power Consumption of Copper Cementation Using Electromagnetic Field

Abstract

Mass transfer rate is the main controlling parameter in the cementation process. Due to the economical aspects, iron is the most popular sacrificing metal. Accordingly, during the cementation process, electromagnetic field can be utilized to improve the motion of Fe ions in the aqueous solution. In the present study, the rate of copper (II) cementation from copper sulfate solutions on a rotating iron cylinder subjected to a magnetic field was studied to demonstrate the effect of electromagnetic field on the rate of cementation. The application of electromagnetic field (EMF) strongly enhances the rate of cementation process as 88% of copper was removed after 15 minutes when EMF was used in a direction parallel to the iron cylinder. The results showed that without EMF, the rate of mass transfer was correlated by the equation Sh = 1.18Re 0.94 Sc 0.33 and by equation Sh = 2.29Re 0.95 Sc 0.33 with applying the EMF. This work illustrates that the enhancement of copper recovery in presence of EMF is due to the induced motion of Fe +n in the solution which is limited in the range of cylinder rotation speed of 300–900 rpm. Moreover, the experimental results indicated that applying the EMF leads to reduce the power consumption for the recovery by 36% per kg of copper.