A green method to leach vanadium and chromium from residue using NaOH-H2O2

Hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant was applied in leaching of vanadium and chromium in concentrated NaOH solution. Under the optimal reaction conditions (the liquid to solid ratio of 4.0 ml/g, residue particle size of <200 mesh, the mass ratio of NaOH-to-residue of 1.0 g/g, the volume ratio of H2O2-to-residue of 1.2 ml/g, reaction temperature of 90 °C and reaction time of 120 min), the leaching efficiency of vanadium and chromium could reach up to 98.60% and 86.49%, respectively. Compared with the current liquid-phase oxidation technologies, the reaction temperature was 90–310 °C lower, and the NaOH concentration of the reaction medium is lower by more than 50 wt% (the mass ratio of NaOH-to-residue of 1.0 g/g equals to concentration of 20 wt%). The kinetics study revealed that leaching process of chromium and vanadium were interpreted with shrinking core model under chemical reaction control. The apparent activation energy of chromium and vanadium dissolution was 22.19 kJ/mol and 6.95 kJ/mol, respectively.