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Analysis of a reactive distillation process to recover tertiary amines and acid for use in a combined nickel extraction‐mineral carbonation process
Author(s) -
Zappala Lauren C.,
Balucan Reydick D.,
Vaughan James,
Steel Karen M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
environmental progress and sustainable energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.495
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1944-7450
pISSN - 1944-7442
DOI - 10.1002/ep.13141
Subject(s) - carbonation , sulfuric acid , chemistry , distillation , pulp and paper industry , nickel , mineral acid , tertiary amine , leaching (pedology) , laterite , waste management , environmental science , inorganic chemistry , chromatography , organic chemistry , aqueous solution , soil science , engineering , soil water
A range of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies are under development to suit the needs of different geographies and industries. Nickel laterites are a form of naturally weathered ultramafic rock, which makes them a suitable feedstock for CCUS via mineral carbonation. The pH swing processes developed for mineral carbonation use acid and base in a similar manner to nickel laterite refining, thus there is an opportunity to integrate the two processes. The success of pH swing processes is heavily dependent on the ability to regenerate the acid and base within the process and have low energy requirements. This contribution presents a pH swing nickel extraction‐mineral carbonation process, which uses triethylamine as the base and sulfuric acid, and reports results of regeneration experiments performed by distillation of triethylamine and sulfuric acid solutions. From the studies, the optimal pH of the regenerated acid is approximately 2.5 and at this point a highly selective separation is achieved with 70% recovery of amine while removing 13% of the water. It is proposed that formation of triethylammonium bisulphate (Et 3 NH + HSO 4 − ) limits the recovery of amine. Future studies will assess the leaching efficacy of the regenerated acid. © 2019 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 38:e13141, 2019