Rigid-Flexible Combined Impeller Enhancement in Leaching of Phosphate Rock: a Kinetics Study

[Image: see text] Conventional rigid impellers are frequently used in the leaching process of phosphate rock, which often form a symmetrical flow field in the reactor, leading to a reduction in the leaching efficiency. In this work, a rigid-flexible combined impeller was applied to the leaching process of phosphate rock to increase the leaching efficiency. The effects of the reaction temperature (T), sulfuric acid excess coefficient (ε), liquid–solid ratio (L/S), agitation speed (N), and leaching time (t) on the leaching of phosphate rock were investigated, and based on this, the leaching kinetics was studied. The results indicated that under the optimum parameters of a reaction temperature of 353 K, a sulfuric acid excess coefficient of 1.15, a liquid–solid ratio of 4.0 mL/g, an agitation speed of 280 rpm, and a leaching time of 120 min, the leaching rate of phosphate rock using the rigid-flexible combined impeller reached 89.1%, which was 7.1% higher than that of the conventional rigid impeller under the same electric energy consumption. The leaching process complied with the unreacted core shrinking model, and the reaction rate was controlled by product layer diffusion. The apparent rate equation of the leaching process was 1 – 2X/3 – (1 – X)(2/3) = 2.06 × 10(–3)[ε](1.375)[L/S](1.273)[N](0.748) exp(−19.03 × 10(3)/RT)·t, and the apparent activation energy was 19.03 kJ/mol. The numerical simulation and analysis of the leaching residue showed that the system temperature in the rigid-flexible combined impeller system was homogenized, and the mixing effect of reactants was enhanced through the multiposition movement of the flexible connection piece in the axial direction, so that the reactants participated in the chemical reaction more efficiently.