Question

1. Discuss the effect of increasing the number of co-current stages in the present recovery a. For ideal leaching stages b. For non-ideal leaching stages

Answer 1

Increasing the number of stages increases the amount of material that can be recovered from leaching.

This is because more time is provided for mass transfer to take place. But as the solution approaches equilibrium, the number of stages required is more even for a very percentage of separation.

1. For ideal stages: Increasing the stages increases the mass of solute recovered from the materail leached
2. For non-ideal stages: Increasing the stages increases the mass of solute recovered from the materail leached. But, the number of non-ideal stages required is more than the number of ideal stages since they operate at an efficiency less than the ideal stages