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Thermal roasting behavior and kinetics of African cobalt-rich copper sulfide ore in air atmosphere

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Abstract

African cobalt-rich copper sulfide ore (CRCS) is an important copper-cobalt resource. The CRCS mainly contains chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), pyrite (FeS2), and carrollite (CuCo2S4). In our previous study, activated roasting was used to treat CRCS, converting CuCo2S4 into sulfate that is easy to leach Cu and Co. It was found that the kinetics of CuCo2S4 in CRCS transformation was slow during roasting, which is a key factor affecting the subsequent increase in cobalt leaching rate. Therefore, it is of practical significance to explore the kinetics process in the activated roasting process of CRCS. In this study, thermal roasting kinetics of CRCS in the air atmosphere was studied by TG-DTG method at heating rates of 5, 10, 15, and 20 K min−1, respectively. Meanwhile, the phase transformation behavior of major minerals, pyrite, and carrollite during roasting was studied. The results show that the roasting process of CRCS mainly goes through three stages: Stage I: removal of free water and crystal water; Stage II: oxidation of sulfide minerals to sulfate; and Stage III: decomposition of sulfate to oxide. Given Stage II, the deconvolution separation method was used to separate overlapping reaction peaks of FeS2 and CuCo2S4. The kinetic parameters were evaluated by Friedman method, KAS method, FWO method, and CR method, respectively. The most probable mechanism function and activation energy (E) were determined by comparing the model-free method with the model-fitting method. Results showed that the oxidation of FeS2 in CRCS conforms to the 2-D diffusion model; the oxidation of CuCo2S4 in CRCS accords with the Avrami–Eroféev model. Finally, thermodynamic parameters of the reaction including enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy were calculated. Kinetic analysis shows that the heating rate has a significant influence on the ore phase transition during the oxidation process of CRCS. The oxidation processes of different ore in CRCS conform to different kinetic mechanisms.

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Abbreviations

CRCS:

Cobalt-rich copper sulfide ore

FWO:

Flynn–Wall–Ozawa method

KAS:

Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose method

CR:

Coats–Redfern method

E :

Activation energy (kJ mol−1)

A :

Exponential factor (min−1)

α :

Reaction conversion fraction

β :

Heating rate (K min−1)

f(α):

Differential forms of kinetic mechanism function

G(α):

The integral form of kinetic mechanism function

TAK:

Thermal roasting kinetics

EV:

Electric vehicles

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC1908401), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52034002, U1802253), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (FRF-TT-19-001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Weijiao Yang, Xiang Li, Yubo Liu, Baozhong Ma & Chengyan Wang

  2. BGRIMM Technology Group, Beijing, 100160, China

    Weijiao Yang

  3. Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Weijiao Yang, Hua Wang, Xingming Jiang & Chengyan Wang

  4. School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Xiang Li, Yubo Liu, Baozhong Ma & Chengyan Wang

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  1. Weijiao Yang
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  5. Hua Wang
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Contributions

WY contributed to investigation, writing—review and editing, formal analysis, resources. XL contributed to investigation, conceptualization, writing—original draft. YL contributed to validation, visualization. BM contributed to conceptualization, writing—review and editing, project administration. HW contributed to formal analysis, resources, writing—review and editing. XJ contributed to conceptualization, visualization. Chengyan Wang contributed to project administration, funding acquisition and supervision.

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Correspondence to Xiang Li or Baozhong Ma.

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Yang, W., Li, X., Liu, Y. et al. Thermal roasting behavior and kinetics of African cobalt-rich copper sulfide ore in air atmosphere. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 13469–13481 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11628-6

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