Experimental and simulation study of copper recovery process from copper oxide ore using aspen plus software: Optimization and sensitivity analysis of effective parameters

Aspen Plus software was used to simulate and measure the recovery efficiency of copper in leaching process of copper oxide in H2SO4 solution. The Taguchi experimental design method was applied to determine the optimum operating conditions for dissolution of copper oxide ore in H2SO4 solution. The experimental variables and their levels were as follow: (1) the weight ratio of sulfuric acid to copper content of ore (H2SO4/Cu ratio), 0.937-1.875; (2) leaching temperature (degrees C), 50-80; (3) agitation rate (rpm), 100-400; (4) reaction time (min), 30-120; (5) particle size (mm), 0.01-10; (6) solid/liquid ratio (Pulp density), 10%-40 wt. %; (7) additives values (kg/ton), 10-50 and (8) leaching pH, 1.4-2. The optimum conditions were found to be sulfuric acid/copper ratio: 1.25, temperature: 80 degrees C, agitation rate: 400 rpm, leaching time: 30 min, particle size: 0.1 mm, pulp density: 10 %, additives value: 20 kg/ton and pH: 1.8. The simulation results of the Aspen Plus software indicated that at optimum operating conditions obtained by Taguchi method, the copper recovery from copper oxide ore in H2SO4 solutions was 95 %.