Process optimization of rare earth and aluminum leaching from weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth ore with compound ammonium salts

In order to intensify the leaching process of rare earth（RE） and reduce the impurities in the leachate, ammonium chloride（NH4Cl） and ammonium nitrate（NH4NO3） were mixed as a compound leaching agent to treat the weathered crust elution-deposited RE ore. Effects of molar ratio of NH~＋_4Cl and NH_4NO_3, ammonium（NH_4） concentration, leaching agent pH and flow rate on the leaching process of RE were studied and evaluated by the chromatographic plate theory. Leaching process of the main impurity aluminium（Al） was also discussed in detail. Results showed that a higher initial ammonium concentration in a certain range could enhance the mass transfer process of RE and Al by providing a driving force to overcome the resistance of diffusion. pH almost had no effects on the mass transfer efficiency of RE and Al in the range of 4 to 8. The relationship between the flow rate and height equivalent to a theoretical plate（HETP） could fit well with the Van Deemter equation, and the flow rate at the lowest HETP was determined. The optimum conditions of column leaching for RE and Al were 1：1（molar ratio） of NH_4Cl and NH_4NO_3, 0.2 mol/L of ammonium concentration, pH 4–8 of leaching agent and 0.5 mL /min of flow rate. Under this condition, the mass transfer efficiency of RE was improved, but no change was observed for Al compared with the most widely used ammonium sulfate. Moreover, the significant difference value（around 20 mL） of retention volume at the peak concentration between RE and Al provided a possibility for their separation. It suggested the potential application of the novel compound leaching agent（NH_4Cl/NH_4NO_3）. It was found that the relative concentration of RE in the leachate could be easily obtained by monitoring the pH of leachate.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SWIRLING FLOWS IN OXIDATION REACTORS FOR TiO_2 MANUFACTURE

The oxidation reactor plays a key role in producing rutile titanium dioxide （TiO2） from vapor-phase titanium tetrachloride （TiCl4） by employing a swirling flow operation for enhanced gas mixing. This work aims to understand the effect of reactor configuration on the 3-D swirling flow field using computational fluid dynamics （CFD） simulation. Considering the anisotropic turbulence involved, the Reynolds stress model is applied to describe the complex swirling flow together with the cross-flow mixing of gases. The results show significant effect of the flow angle between the wall jet of air stream （representing TiCl4 in practice） and the axial direction on the initial flow field of cross-flow mixing, where 60° gives smooth profiles of axial velocity development while 90° may provide the fastest mixing between the jet and the axial bulk flow. The pipe shape for the reaction and developing zone, i.e., straight, expanding and shrinking, shows slight influence on the hydrodynamics.