A Novel Process for The Production of Potash from Plant Ash: Leaching Technique

Research Article

A Novel Process for The Production of Potash from Plant Ash: Leaching Technique

Ademola S. OLUFEMI, Oluwafemi O. OLAYEBI and Dandy E. MAKPAH

Corresponding Author : Ademola S. OLUFEMI,

Department of Chemical/Petroleum Engineering, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Email ID : adestanford.olufemi@gmail.com

Received : 2017-04-15 Accepted : 2017-05-22 Published : 2017-05-22

Abstract : The leaching process involved in the production of Potash from plant ash was investigated. Three samples viz palm inflorescence, sunflower stalks and corn stalks were selected, as the raw ash material for the leaching. Analysis of the solution resulting from the ash shows that sunflower stalks, palm inflorescence, corn stalks contain by weight 43.01 g and 28.19 g Potassium oxide (K2O) and a total solute content of 65.87 g, 63.61 g respectively. All other material that are not soluble in water are considered inert. Laboratory batch leaching experiments on the ash show that, the optimum leaching temperature for all the samples is 70 0C for a particle size range of 295 nm to 45 nm. Extraction data on over-flow and under-flow at the optimum leaching temperature and size range gave the number of equilibrium stages to be three for a solvent to feed ratio 3.765, 3.44 and 2.81 for sunflower stalks, palm inflorescence and corn stalks ash respectively. A small scale model of a continuous counter-current leaching system was designed, constructed and tested. An overall stage efficiency of 22.4 % was obtained with the stated solvent to feed ratio. The efficiency of the system was however increased to 83 % by increasing the solvent to feed ratio to 12 times the former.

Keywords : Counter-current-flow, Leaching, Over-flow, Plant-ash, Under-flow

Citation : Ademola S. OLUFEMI et al. (2017 A Novel Process for The Production of Potash from Plant Ash: Leaching Technique, J.
of Advancement in Engineering and Technology, V5I1.01. DOI : 10.5281/zenodo.1000241

Copyright : © 2018 Ademola S. OLUFEMI. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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