Gas-liquid oxygen mass-transfer; from fundamentals to applications in hydrometallurgical systems

摘要

Oxygen gas is used as a reactant in manyhydrometallurgical processes. However, oxygen is sparinglysoluble in aqueous electrolyte solutions, and the driving force forits mass-transfer from the gas to the aqueous phase is also verylow. Hence, the mass-transfer of oxygen depends significantly onthe interfacial area between the gas and the liquid phase, which inturn depends on the mixing conditions inside the reactor. A changein the solution composition or the presence of solids can furtheralter the rate of oxygen mass-transfer. All such phenomena relatedto the gas - liquid oxygen mass-transfer in hydro-metallurgical unitoperations are critically reviewed in the present article - from thebasic thermodynamics and kinetics of oxygen dissolution inaqueous solutions to the most recent advances in oxygen mass-transfer systems.