Abstract
Large amounts of vanadium bearing slags are
produced during steel making and discarded to the
environment. Bioleaching has proved that it is an
environmentally friendly route which has been lately
used for recovery of metals. The leaching of vanadium
from a roasted slag was studied using gluconic, citric
and oxalic acids. The vanadium slag was roasted at
900oC in presence of Na2CO3 prior to leaching. The
effect of acid concentration, solid/liquid ratio, particles
size and temperature were investigated. It was
observed that at a concentration of 150mM for
gluconic acid and 100mM of citric and oxalic acid, 2%
of S/L ratio, -38μm and temperature of 45oC, 91, 86
and 81% of vanadium were recovered from gluconic,
citric and oxalic acid respectively. Recovery of
vanadium using gluconic acid is affected more by the
acid concentration compared to citric and oxalic acids.
The solid/ liquid ratio as well as the particle size
increase have a negative effect on the recovery of each
acid and the temperature increase allows to enhance
the recovery.