Constrained Parameter Estimation for a Mechanistic Kinetic Model of Cobalt–Hydrogen Electrochemical Competition during a Cobalt Removal Process

A mechanistic kinetic model of cobalt–hydrogen electrochemical competition for the cobalt removal process in zinc hydrometallurgical was proposed. In addition, to overcome the parameter estimation difficulties arising from the model nonlinearities and the lack of information on the possible value ranges of parameters to be estimated, a constrained guided parameter estimation scheme was derived based on model equations and experimental data. The proposed model and the parameter estimation scheme have two advantages: (i) The model reflected for the first time the mechanism of the electrochemical competition between cobalt and hydrogen ions in the process of cobalt removal in zinc hydrometallurgy; (ii) The proposed constrained parameter estimation scheme did not depend on the information of the possible value ranges of parameters to be estimated; (iii) the constraint conditions provided in that scheme directly linked the experimental phenomenon metrics to the model parameters thereby providing deeper insights into the model parameters for model users. Numerical experiments showed that the proposed constrained parameter estimation algorithm significantly improved the estimation efficiency. Meanwhile, the proposed cobalt–hydrogen electrochemical competition model allowed for accurate simulation of the impact of hydrogen ions on cobalt removal rate as well as simulation of the trend of hydrogen ion concentration, which would be helpful for the actual cobalt removal process in zinc hydrometallurgy.