Factors Affecting Dephosphorization of Agbaja Iron Ore (Kogi State), Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this research work is to determine the optimal factor combinations for
dephosphorization of a Nigerian Agbaja iron deposit –the largest inferred deposit of about 1.250 billion
tones. The process parameters used in dephosphorization include concentration, particle size and time
dwell. Because of sequential experimentation, RSM [Response Surface Methodology] of central composite
design (CCD) as used in estimating response surface of second order regression equation. The RSM is
widely used as an optimization, development, and improvement technique for processes based on the use of
factorial designs—that is, those in which the response variable is measured for all the possible
combinations of the levels chosen of the factors. The main effect of a factor is defined as the variation in
response caused by a change in the level of the factor considered, when the other ones are kept constant.
The results generated from the experiment indicated that optimum conditions of dephosphorization of about
≤0.05 were obtainable at concentrations of 0.6M, dwell time of 35mins and particle size of 0.27mm
respectively