Simultaneous extraction of vanadium and chromium from vanadium slag using low-pressure liquid phase oxidation method

A low-pressure liquid oxidation method was proposed and proven to be effective to extract vanadium and chromium simultaneously from the vanadium slag in concentrated NaOH aqueous solutions. The effect of temperature, NaOH mass concentration, liquid-to-solid mass ratio, stirring speed and pressure on the extraction of vanadium and chromium in NaOH aqueous solutions were systematically investigated. Under the optimal reaction conditions (temperature of 473 K, liquid-to-solid mass ratio of 6:1, stirring speed of 700 rpm, NaOH mass concentration of 50%, pressure of 1 MPa and reaction time of 180 min), the vanadium and chromium recovery reached 95% and 90%, respectively. It was found that the reaction temperature and NaOH concentration were important factors for the extraction of vanadium and chromium. The kinetics of the decomposition of vanadium slag in concentrated NaOH aqueous under low pressure was analyzed using the shrinking core model, and the results indicated that the extraction of vanadium and chromium were both governed by the internal diffusion step, with apparent activation energies calculated to be 26.22 and 32.79 kJ/mol, respectively.