National Institute of Technology Calicut Department of Chemical Engineering

Experiment No: Date:

SIMPLE LEACHING

OBJECTIVE

1. To draw the percentage actual recovery against solvent to feed ratio for single
stage leaching. Also, to compare actual recovery with the theoretical recovery.
2. To draw the percentage actual recovery vs the number of stages curve keeping
the solvent to feed ratio constant and to compare the actual recovery with the
theoretical recovery.

APPARATUS

1. 500 cc beakers (6 No)

2. Pipettes - 500 cc (1), 20 cc (1 No), 5 cc (1 No)
3. Burette (50 cc)
4. Volumetric Flask (100 cc)
5. Conical Flask (250 cc)

CHEMICALS

1. Sand
2. Sodium Carbonate
3. N/10 HCl Solution

THEORY

The methods of removing one constituent from a solid or liquid mixture by a liquid
solvent fall into two categories. If the soluble matter is dissolved from its mixture by
an insoluble solid, the operation is called leaching or solid extraction. The second,
called liquid extraction is used to separate two miscible liquids by the use of a solvent.

The following are some terms connected with leaching. The mixture of the insoluble
carrier solid plus the solute which is to be separated is called the feed. The feed is
contacted with the solvent and the mixture is separated into two streams. The solvent
rich product of the operation is called the extract or the overflow and the stream that
contains the bulk of the carrier solid is called the leached solids or underflow. A unit of
equipment in which the above-mentioned operation is carried out is called a stage. In
simple batch leaching operation, if sufficient amount of solvent is used, all the solute

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OBSERVATIONS

Varying Solvent to Feed Ratio

Sodium Volume of
Solvent to
Beaker No Carbonate Sand (g) Water (ml) solvent
feed ratio
(g) used (ml)

Strength of Extract

Indicator:

Colour Change:

Extract Titre value of HCl (ml)

Makeup Volume for
used for
Beaker No Volume titration Titre Titre
dilution
(ml) (ml) Value 1 Value 2
(ml)

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can ultimately be dissolved in the solvent. The amount of solute that comes out with
the extract based on this assumption is called the theoretical recovery. But actual
recovery will be less than the theoretical recovery because

 The solute may be incompletely dissolved because of inadequate contact time

 The solids leaving the stage retain some of the solutes.

The method of operation of leaching can be classified into

1. Batch wise (unsteady State)

2. Continuous (steady State)

Here, in this experiment, we study the principles of batch leaching.

PROCEDURE

1. Varying solvent to feed ratio

i. Prepare a 10% by weight mixture of sodium carbonate and sand by
accurately weighing about 45g of sand and 5 g of sodium carbonate. Add 50
cc of distilled water to this mixture. This is the feed.
ii. Prepare five different feed sample in 500 cc beaker. Now, add an additional
50 cc of distilled water to the beaker. Stir the mixture well and allow the
sand to settle for a few minutes.
iii. Pipette out 50cc of clear solution from this beaker into a clean empty beaker.
To bring down the normality of the extract to approximately that of HCl the
following procedure is suggested.
iv. Pipette out 10cc of extract and make up the volume to 100cc. Using a
volumetric flask, transfer 20cc of this solution to a conical flask and titrate
against HCl taken in the burette.
v. Note that the solvent to feed ratio by volume used in the above experiment
is on sand (unit) free basis.
vi. Repeat the procedure with feed taken in beakers 2, 3, 4 and 5 with the
following difference. To beaker 2, add 1000cc of water to a clean beaker.
That is, feed in beaker 2 is extracted with 150cc, 200cc, and 250cc of solvent
respectively.
vii. In each case, do a suitable dilution of extract before it is titrated against HCl
taken in the burette.

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Varying number of stages

Sodium Extract Total

Beaker Sand Number
Carbonate Water (ml) per amount of
No (g) of stages
(g) stage(ml) solvent (ml)

Strength of Extract

Indicator:

Colour Change:

Extract Titre value of HCl (ml)

Makeup Volume for
used for
Beaker No Volume titration Titre Titre
dilution
(ml) (ml) Value 1 Value 2
(ml)

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2. Varying number of stages

i. Prepare a 10% by weight mixture of sodium carbonate and sand by
accurately weighing about 45g of sand and 5g of sodium carbonate. Add
50cc of distilled water to this mixture. This is feed. Prepare the feed in 5
beakers.
ii. Extract the solute from each beaker with 200cc of water but with varying
number of stages from 1 to 5.
iii. To beaker 1, add 200cc of water, stir the contents well, allow the sand to
settle and pipette out 200cc of clear solution. Titrate it against HCl
iv. To beaker 2, add 100cc of water and pipette out 100cc of clear solution into
a clean beaker. Now, add 100cc of fresh water again to the slurry and after
mixing well, pipette out 100cc of clear solution and mix it with the earlier
extract. Find strength of this combined extract by titrating against 0.1 N HCl
solution.
v. Beaker 3: Extracted 3 times using 66.6cc of water each time.
vi. Beaker 4: Use 50cc of water four times.
vii. Beaker 5: Use 40cc of water five times.
viii. A standard solution of sodium carbonate approximately 0.1 N is prepared
and this is used to standardize the HCl needed.

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Standardization of HCl

Indicator:

Colour Change:

Volume of Na2CO3 Titre value of HCl (ml)

Sl No.
(ml) Titre 1 Titre 2

CALCULATIONS

Standardization

Weight of Na2CO3(W1) =__________________________g

Made Up volume of Na2CO3 =__________________________ml

Equivalent Weight of Na2CO3(M1) =__________________________

Normality of Na2CO3 (N1) = (W1/M1) =

Normality of Na2CO3 = (N1 V1)Na2CO3/ V2 =

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Varying solvent to feed ratio

For, Solvent to feed ratio______________

Normality of makeup solution = (VHCl . NHCl) / VExtract =

Normality of Extract = (Nmakeup x VExtract Act) / VExtact dil.

Solute extracted = (NExtract x Eq. Weight of Na2CO3 x VExtract Act) / 1000

Volume of Extract
% Theoretical Recovery = ( )
Volume of liquid when feed and solvent are mixed

Solute extracted
%Actual Recovery = ( ) ×100
Na2 CO3 taken

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Normality of Solute %actual % theoretical

Mixture No
Extract extracted (g) recovery recovery

Varying number of stages

For, Stage______________

Normality of makeup solution = (VHCl . NHCl) / VExtract =

Normality of Extract = (Nmakeup x VExtract Act) / VExtact dil.

𝐸1
𝑅1 = =
𝑉1

𝐸2
𝑅2 = (100 − 𝑅1 ) × =
𝑉2

Overall theoretical recovery = R1 + R2 =

𝐸
𝑅3 = (100 − 𝑅2 ) × 𝑉3 =
3

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Overall theoretical recovery = R1 + R2 + R3 =

𝐸
𝑅4 = (100 − 𝑅3 ) × 𝑉4 =
4

Overall theoretical recovery = R1 + R2 + R3 + R4 =

𝐸
𝑅5 = (100 − 𝑅4 ) × 𝑉5 =
5

Overall theoretical recovery = R1 + R2 + R3 + R4 + R5 =

Solute extracted
%Actual Recovery = ( ) ×100
Na2 CO3 taken

Normality of Solute % actual % theoretical

Mixture No
Extract extracted (g) recovery recovery

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RESULTS

DISCUSSIONS

PRECAUTIONS

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