A shrinking particle—shrinking core model for leaching of a zinc ore containing silica

A new mathematical model was developed for leaching of zinc ores containing silicates such as hemimorphite which produce a gel during leaching with sulfuric acid. This model is based on the shrinking core model in which the particle size and the reacting core shrink simultaneously. It was shown that the actual dissolution time of the ore particles is longer than the time corresponding to the dissolution of chemical zinc oxide itself. It was suggested that because of the existence of silicates in the ore, a gelatinous layer was formed around the reacting core. Since the gel product is soft, it breaks apart when the particles collide and as a result, the particles shrink. However, a thin gelatinous layer always covers the reacting core which increases the mass transfer resistance and increases the leaching time. This model was applied to leaching of a zinc-rich tailing containing hemimorphite and the thickness of the gelatinous layer as well as the diffusion coefficient in this layer was determined.     

Coping with land scarcity. Farmers' changing land-use and management practices in two mountain watersheds of Nepal

In this study some light is shed on farmers' changing land-use and management practices in two mountain watersheds located in the Western Hills of Nepal. The study is based on a survey of 300 households, group discussion, interviews of key informants, and field observation in project and non-project watersheds conducted from April to September 1999. Confronted with shrinking landholding size, owing to a steadily growing population and scarcity of non-farming employment opportunities, farmers in both watersheds have gradually intensified land use and cultivated new crops to increase farm production and income. They are shifting from cereal crops to livestock husbandry, particularly along the road in the project watershed, and to vegetables and other cash crops in the accessible foothills of the non-project watershed. They have also adopted various structural and biological measures to control soil erosion, landslides, gully expansion and soil nutrient loss in order to maintain or enhance land productivity. The degree of adoption of the structural and biological measures is higher in the project watershed than in the non-project watershed. Contrary to the traditionally held belief of some researchers, population pressure on a finite land resource has brought about positive changes in land-use and management practices. Farmers have innovated and adopted different land management technologies to increase farm production as they are exposed to the risk of food insecurity because of shrinking landholding size and land degradation.     

若尔盖气候变化及其对湿地退化的影响

若尔盖高原沼泽湿地地处黄河上游,属江河源区,其生态作用对黄河的安危有直接影响,近年来退化严重。本文利用若尔盖高原湿地周边4个气象站1971—2000年逐月平均气温和降水量资料,分析了年和四季的气候特征及气候变化趋势,并对气候突变进行了检验。结果表明:近30年来若尔盖湿地表现出气温升高、降水量减少、蒸发量增大的暖干化趋势,并且在20世纪90年代后期变化趋势更加明显。这种气候变化趋势使得若尔盖高原湿地的地表水资源减少,湿地萎缩,加速了草地退化和沙化。在气候暖干化的背景下,人类活动又加剧了若尔盖高原沼泽湿地萎缩及退化趋势。     

Sucrose Dissolution Studies Leading to a Generic Shrinking Object Model for Batch Dissolution of Regular-Shaped Particles

The dissolution of sieved sucrose crystals has been studied spectrophotometrically by observing the increase in dissolved sucrose concentration with time. Equations recently derived from the shrinking sphere model for the batch dissolution of a solid in under-saturated conditions tested successfully on both single crystal-size and mixtures of two sizes of sucrose crystals. Single-sized crystals provided a straight line for the plot of the fraction of un-dissolved solid to the power one-third, versus time ( vs. t). The dissolution of mixtures of two crystal sizes fitted the non-linear equation tested earlier on sodium chloride in water-propanone mixtures. Together, these two sets of tests on ionic and covalent substances verify that many simple dissolutions will be easily modelled using this physical model based on shrinkage, where the chemical composition of the solids is very much of secondary importance. Consequently, there is an increased chance that the equations will describe the dissolution of biogenic silica in seawater, the problem which originally inspired this study. More than this, though, the equations are discovered to be mathematically generic; very many geometries other than the sphere satisfy the same equations, and the “shrinking object dissolution model” is thereby defined. The approach should also apply even to non-aqueous dissolutions. A prototype plot of shrinking object rate constant (obtained from numerical fitting of the model to sucrose) versus particle size is presented, and it is shown how analogous treatments for other substances will be central to collection and use of much dissolution data in the future. The study is placed in context with much earlier solid phase decomposition studies, concluding that the key characteristic of the simplest of all dissolutions is that the interface between solid and liquid should advance at a uniform linear rate. It is shown how this approach leads to equations of the same mathematical forms already discussed above.     

Batch Dissolution Kinetics: The Shrinking Sphere Model with Salts and Its Potential Application to Biogenic Silica

The full potential of batch dissolution experiments in geochemical and industrial applications has been hampered by the lack of an equation to describe the increase in dissolved solid concentration with time. This study provides new experimental results on the dissolution of salts and new equations, which describe dissolution according to the shrinking sphere model. Sieved salts were found to dissolve according to the shrinking sphere model while the dissolution of the parent material, raw (agglomerated) salt, fitted an exponential dissolution curve. The implications of this to the development of a systematic approach to batch dissolution, irrespective of the solid, is explored. Mathematical equations are derived for the dissolution of solids in under-saturated systems, which are much simpler than ones available, so far. In turn these provide easier comprehension of the workings of the shrinking sphere model. Finally, existing results for biogenic silica dissolution are reviewed in the light of the above-mentioned experimental and modelling advances. An earlier claim that shrinking sphere dissolution had been observed is refuted.     

STW型生态土壤稳定剂改良工程粘性土胀缩性试验研究

针对STW型生态土壤稳定剂改良粘性土的胀缩性进行了试验研究。实验结果表明:STW型土壤稳定剂可以有效地改良粘性土的胀缩性;土颗粒粒径的大小、稳定剂的掺量对改良粘性土的胀缩性均有不同程度的影响;在平均粒径为0.75mm时,改良土和素土的无荷膨胀率均达到最低值;改良土的胀缩性随着稳定剂掺量的增大而减小。     

Shrinking Sphere Kinetics for Batch Dissolution of Mixed Particles of a Single Substance at High Under-Saturation: Validation with Sodium Chloride, but with Biogenic Silica in Mind

The cubic equation recently derived for the increase in concentration of a solute with time, as the solid dissolves in batch according to the shrinking sphere model at high under-saturation, is extended to dissolutions of mixtures of differently sized particles. This problem needs to be solved if batch dissolutions are to play their part in the proposed amelioration of global warming and associated climate change by accelerated ‘re-burial’ of excess CO₂ in ocean sediment. The upgraded model was tested using sodium chloride dissolved in 50% aqueous propanone, whence the model fitted two separate runs with 500 and 212 μm, and 212 and 38 μm, diameter crystals, respectively. The key to simulating dissolution in this way lies in the dissolutions being independent of each other. It is further shown that although this condition was implicit in the recent derivation of the cubic equation, it was not recognised at the time. The work should be applicable to any batch dissolution of mixed particles at high under-saturation, and hence, may find use in many industrial and laboratory dissolutions. Simulations show how agglomerated mixtures can yield a straight line on the plot of ln(1 − C/C _T) versus time, as was reported to occur recently with sodium chloride taken ‘straight from the bottle’. It is shown that this probably explains why exponential dissolutions may have seemed appropriate to the dissolution of biogenic silica in earlier literature. This study suggests that a new round of biogenic silica dissolutions, but with sieved samples, would be worthwhile, with the likelihood that shrinking sphere behaviour might well be found to characterise the kinetics. The opportunity is taken to investigate a number of aspects of the shrinking sphere model not generally discussed before, e.g. the graph for the change in surface area with time. The limitations of using cubic salt crystals with the shrinking sphere model are discussed.