Leaching of chromite ore in concentrated KOH by catalytic oxidation using CuO as catalyst

CuO was used as a catalyst in the concentrated KOH solution to enhance the leaching of chromium from the chromite ore. The impacts of temperature, KOH-to-chromite ore mass ratio, CuO-to-chromite ore mass ratio, and gas flow rate on the chromium leaching rate were investigated. The results indicated that CuO played an important role in improving the chromium leaching rate. The leaching rate reached 98% after leaching for 6 h when CuO was applied, whereas it was only 60.8% without CuO under the same reaction conditions: temperature 230 °C, KOH-to-ore mass ratio 6:1, stirring speed 700 r/min, gas flow rate 1 L/min. According to the kinetics study, the catalytic oxidation was controlled by surface chemical reaction and the activation energy was calculated to be 15.79 kJ/mol when the temperature was above 230 °C. In contrast, without CuO, the rate-determining step was external diffusion and the apparent activation energy was 38.01 kJ/mol.