Dissolution Kinetics of Western Deseret Phosphate Rocks, Abu Tartur with Hydrochloric Acid

The dissolution kinetics of the Abu-Tartur phosphate rock using dilute hydrochloric acid has been investigated. The influence of acid concentration, liquid/solid ratio, particle size and temperature was studied to explore the dissolution kinetics of phosphate rock. It was found that the leaching rate increases with increasing the acid concentration, liquid/solid ratio, temperature and decreases with increasing particle size of the phosphate rock. The kinetic data showed that the leaching process can be described by a shrinking-core model with apparent activation energy equals to 14.46kJ/mol. The low activation energy supported the findings that the phosphate ore leaching rate is controlled by the diffusion of reactants and leaching products through a porous ore. Based on this model and the experimental results, the dissolution rate can be expressed by the following semi-empirical equation;[1 − 3(1 − α) + 2(1 − α)]= 3 x 10C (L/ S) ro e 1448/ RT t. The experimental results was tested graphically and statically and found that the above model fits satisfactorily the experimental results.