Poster Presentation International Solvent Extraction Conference 2025

Selective removal of impurities from Co-Ni-Cu solution using solvent extraction (#116)

Reza Aref 1 , Niklas Jantunen 1 , Sami Virolainen 1
  1. LUT University, Lappeenranta, ETELä-KARJALA, Finland

A non-ferrous metals solution containing various impurities such as Mo, V, Re, Ga, and Ge is generated during the leaching of diverse primary and secondary resources. The complicated impurity matrix in the non-ferrous solution makes producing a pure base metal solution challenging. This work aims to design the solvent extraction process to separate impurities selectively based on the aqueous chemistry and metals speciation studied by HSC software in several extraction steps. At first, a proper acidic organic system can efficiently separate cationic metals while minimizing the co-extraction of non-ferrous metals. Then, the neutral compounds such as Ge(OH)₄ could be separated using solvating reagents. In the end, anionic complexes of remained impurities could be separated at pH> 7 using amine-based reagents. In each step, the effects of pH of the aqueous solution, temperature, equilibration time, and reagent concentration on the separation of impurities were studied. Additionally, McCabe-Thiele isotherms were determined for the initial design of counter-current separation to purify the base metals feed solution.

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