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Co‐Extraction — Selective stripping for the recovery of nickel and copper from the leach liquor of ocean nodules
Author(s) -
Pandey B. D.,
Bagchi D.,
Kumar Vinay
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450720412
Subject(s) - nickel , copper , cobalt , extraction (chemistry) , metallurgy , copper extraction techniques , cobalt extraction techniques , ferromanganese , chemistry , electrowinning , stripping (fiber) , manganese , nuclear chemistry , electrolyte , materials science , chromatography , electrode , composite material
Ferromanganese deep sea nodules of the Indian Ocean have recently been recognised as a potential source of metals like copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese. For the treatment of the sea nodules following the reduction roast‐ammonia leach process, the leach liquor containing copper, nickel and cobalt was processed to separate and recover these metals by solvent extraction (SX) using 25% LIX 64N in kerosene. Almost quantitative extraction of copper and nickel was realized in a continuous run. During nickel stripping, the small amount of copper in the nickel solution was removed by incorporating a copper extraction step using 10% LIX 64N in kerosene. The purified pregnant nickel electrolyte was electrowon in a non‐diaphragm cell. Copper was similarly recovered by electrowinning (EW). A closed circuit of SX‐EW was run to produce cathodes of nickel and copper with energy consumptions of 3.85 and 2.01 kWh/kg for the respective metals.