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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy?

Also known as: pyrometallurgy · hydrometallurgy · roasting · leaching · cementation

Definition 6.13 University Chemistry — Year 2 · Chapter 6 — Ellingham Diagrams and Metallurgy

Pyrometallurgy extracts a metal at high temperature, by reduction of its oxide in a furnace. Hydrometallurgy extracts it from an aqueous solution. Their usual steps are roasting (heating a sulfide ore in air to turn it into an oxide, 2 ZnS+3 OX2→2 ZnO+2 SOX2\ce{2ZnS + 3O2 -> 2ZnO + 2SO2}), leaching (dissolving the metal’s compound, often in sulfuric acid, ZnO+2 HX+→ZnX2++HX2O\ce{ZnO + 2H+ -> Zn^2+ + H2O}), purification of the solution, for instance by cementation (reduction of the ions of a nobler metal by a powder of a less noble one, CuX2++Zn→Cu+ZnX2+\ce{Cu^2+ + Zn -> Cu + Zn^2+}), and the recovery of the metal, often by electrolysis.

The hydrometallurgical route to zinc. The sulfur dioxide of the roaster is made into the sulfuric acid of the leach; the acid regenerated at the electrolysis anode is returned to it.
The hydrometallurgical route to zinc. The sulfur dioxide of the roaster is made into the sulfuric acid of the leach; the acid regenerated at the electrolysis anode is returned to it.
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