Experimental Setup and Procedure:

The experimental setup for conducting leaching of metal oxides will be performed in a
Pyrex glass beaker 1000 ml which will be covered with an aluminum sheet with specific
openings for EAF sample feeding, sampling of leached solution, temperature
measurement and paddle of the agitator (we have to decide between the magnetic
stirrer and agitator as using magnetic stirrer will not require opening hole in aluminum
sheet. Reference for magnetic stirrer is found in "Optimization of selective leaching of
Zn from electric arc furnace steelmaking dust using response surface methodology"
where 750 RPM is used). The agitation speed for whole practical will be maintained at
300 RPM an optimum for acidic leaching reagent. A hot plate will be used with
controlled thermostat for controlling the temperature of the system (Water bath is mostly
used as review of paper claims). Kinetic studies will be performed by utilizing 0.7 L of
0.1, 0.5 and 1 M H2SO4 solution obtained from Merck. The dust sample weight will be
35 g measured on analytical weight balance with precision providing an acid to dust
ratio (L:S) of 20 ml/g which is near optimum. The three sets incremental temperatures
30 C starting from 30 will be used with the system open to atmosphere (i.e. normal
atmospheric pressure).
The sampling time for the chemical analysis will be according to a fixed-schedule after
1, 5, 10, 50, 90 min. The samples will be then filtered using filter paper and inserted into
test tubes(glass bottles) yielding a colorless, weakly yellow or weakly emerald which will
depend on the leaching conditions. In some samples there is a chance of white
precipitate of calcium sulphate after some time. The sample will be drawn using 10 ml
pipette (pyrex glass) equipped with sucker. The sampling bottles will be tagged with
codes representing sampling time in order to ensure proper experimentation.
The strategy of optimizing the controlling parameters (concentration and temperature) is
as follows: At a constant temperature of 30 0C the leaching will be conducted at three
sets of different concentrations giving a total of 15 liquid samples, 5 samples for each
concentration. After that the same methodology will be followed for 60 and 90 0C leading
to 30 samples 15 at each temperature. Thus total 45 samples will be drawn and will be
tested using AAS method.