Crossword clues for leaching
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Leach \Leach\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Leached; p. pr. & vb. n. Leaching.] [Written also leech and letch.]
To remove the soluble constituents from by subjecting to the action of percolating water or other liquid; as, to leach ashes or coffee.
To dissolve out; -- often used with out; as, to leach out alkali from ashes.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The process by which something is leached. 2 Liquid that leaches. vb. (present participle of leach English)
WordNet
n. the process of leaching [syn: leach]
Wikipedia
Leaching is the loss or extraction of certain materials from a carrier into a liquid (usually, but not always a solvent). Specifically, it may refer to:
- Leaching (agriculture), the loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil; or applying a small amount of excess irrigation to avoid soil salinity
- Leaching (chemistry), the process of extracting minerals from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid
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Leaching (metallurgy), a widely used extractive metallurgy technique which converts metals into soluble salts in aqueous media
- Dump leaching, an industrial process to extract metals from ore taken directly from the mine and stacked on the leach pad without crushing
- Heap leaching, an industrial process to extract metals from ore which has been crushed into small chunks
- Tank leaching, a hydro metallurgical method of extracting valuable material from ore
- In-situ leaching, a process of recovering minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into the deposit
- Leaching (pedology), the loss of mineral and organic solutes due to percolation from soil
- Bioleaching, the extraction of specific metals from their ores through the use of bacteria and fungi
In agriculture, leaching refers to the loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil, due to rain and irrigation. Soil structure, crop planting, type and application rates of fertilizers, and other factors are taken into account to avoid excessive nutrient loss. Leaching may also refer to the practice of applying a small amount of excess irrigation where the water has a high salt content to avoid salts from building up in the soil ( salinity control). Where this is practiced, drainage must also usually be employed, to carry away the excess water.
Leaching is an environmental concern when it contributes to groundwater contamination. As water from rain, flooding, or other sources seeps into the ground, it can dissolve chemicals and carry them into the underground water supply. Of particular concern are hazardous waste dumps and landfills, and, in agriculture, excess fertilizer, improperly stored animal manure, and biocides (e.g. pesticides, fungicides, insecticides and herbicides).
Leaching is the process of extracting substances from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid, either in nature or through an industrial process. In the chemical processing industry, leaching has a variety of commercial applications, including separation of metal from ore using acid, and sugar from beets using hot water.
Another term for this is lixiviation, or the extraction of a soluble particle from its constituent parts .
In a typical leaching operation, the solid mixture to be separated consists of particles, inert insoluble carrier A and solute B. The solvent, C, is added to the mixture to selectively dissolve B. The overflow from the stage is free of solids and consists of only solvent C and dissolved B. The underflow consists of slurry of liquid of similar composition in the liquid overflow and solid carrier A. In an ideal leaching equilibrium stage, all the solute is dissolved by the solvent; none of the carrier is dissolved. The mass ratio of the solid to liquid in the underflow is dependent on the type of equipment used and properties of the two phases.
Leaching is the process by which inorganic, organic contaminants or radionuclides are released from the solid phase into the water phase under the influence of mineral dissolution, desorption, complexation processes as affected by pH, redox, dissolved organic matter and (micro) biological activity. The process itself is universal, as any material exposed to contact with water will leach components from its surface or its interior depending on the porosity of the material considered.
One such reaction is:
AgS + 4NaCN → 2Na[Ag(CN)] + NaSLeaching is a process where ore is soluble and impurities are insoluble,widely used extractive metallurgy technique which converts metals into soluble salts in aqueous media. Compared to pyrometallurgical operations, leaching is easier to perform and much less harmful, because no gaseous pollution occurs. Drawbacks of leaching are the highly acidic and in some cases toxic residual effluent, and its lower efficiency caused by the low temperatures of the operation, which dramatically affect chemical reaction rates.
In pedology, leaching is the loss of mineral and organic solutes due to very heavy rainfall, high temperature and percolation. It is a mechanism of soil formation distinct from the soil forming process of eluviation, which is the loss of mineral and organic colloids. Leached and elluviated materials tend to be lost from topsoil and deposited in subsoil. A soil horizon accumulating leached and eluviated materials is referred to as a zone of illuviation.
Laterite soil, which develops in regions with high temperature and heavy rainfall, is an example of this process in action.
Usage examples of "leaching".
He had been with Mwynwen frequently, either in his own chambers or her house, resting and leaching out of his body the subliminal aches and slight sickness that extended exposure to iron caused .
The insidious distortions of drake-dreams and the rip currents of primal chaos left a toll of leaching damage.
Weariness compounded the incessant chill, hazing the mind toward dozing sleep and leaching away better judgment.
Not with teeth or claws, but by the much slower poison of leaching your innate free claim to existence.
We clambered to the service road and dropped down into the woods to examine the leaching field that, from the beginning, had formed an unsightly bump in the lawn just beyond the deck.
She had never felt this way before, as if she were wrapped in a weightless cocoon that pulled at her anxieties, leaching them away.
The ground was probably saturated with it, relatively speaking, and even now, a thousand years later, it was still leaching by various slow-dispersal routes into the lake, where it worked its way up the food chain to maximum concentration in the bodies of fish, and the mouths of the people who ate them.
To guard against loss of nitrogen by leaching, therefore, we should aim to keep rich land occupied by some crop, during the winter and early spring, and the earlier the crop is sown in the autumn or late summer, the better, so that the roots will the more completely fill the ground and take up all the available nitrogen within their reach.
It unquestionably prevents the loss of considerable nitric acid from leaching during the winter and early spring.
Thus it comes about that the water which to a great extent divides the rocks into the state of soil, which is continually wearing away the material on the surface, or leaching it out through the springs, is also at work in restoring the layer from beneath.
The pesticide was leaching into the water and poisoning the food chain, and the fish the ospreys were eating were destroying their eggs.
As if in riposte, a pack of coralskippers isolated and surrounded a lone gunship, leaching it of its shields, then battering it with projectiles, kindling a deadly inferno that quickly engulfed the ship.
The third was rangier, with long hair and a beard that even in the leaching moonlight Duffy knew must be coppery red.
Fumes, oil, and bacteria from motor-boats and human waste leaching into the water create new challenges that were never posed by bugs and plankton.
I do not understand the current frenzy, since point-source discharges from the floodplain's seventeen small towns produce in one calendar year twelve times the amount of chemically contaminated stormwater runoff, groundwater leaching, and coliform discharge into surface waters than the combined discharge of all farms in the floodplain for the past decade.