CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY DIVISION, CHEMICAL DEVELOPMENT SECTION C, PROGRESS REPORT ON SEPARATIONS CHEMISTRY AND SEPARATIONS PROGRESS RESEARCH FOR JANUARY-JUNE 1963

Technical Report · Fri Oct 25 00:00:00 EDT 1963

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4153914· OSTI ID:4153914

Brown, K. B.

Cesium Recovery from Ores. Adaptation of the phenol extraction (Phenex) process to the recovery of cesium from ore leach liquors continued to show promise. In roast-leach tests, 98 to 99% of the cesium was dissolved from pollucite ore by roasting the ore at 800 deg C with 1.8 parts of Na/sub 2/CO/sub 3/ plus 1.2 parts of NaCl and leaching with water. More than 99% of the cesium was recovered from the leach liquor and separated from other alkali metals by extracting with 4-sec-butyl-2-( alpha -methylbenzyl)phenol (BAMBP) in diisopropylbenzene and stripping with hydrochloric acid. Santophen-1 also extracted cesium effectively, but, because of the limited solubility of the cesiumSantophen-1 complex in the diluent, the utility of this phenol in ore processing is questionable. Separation of Alkali Metals. The extraction and separation of alkali metals from nitrate solutions was studied with several different types of extractants, including substituted phenols, alkylphosphoric acids, sulfonic acids, carboxylic acids, and mixtures of some of these. With all of these reagents, cesium was extracted more strongly than rubidium, which in turn was extracted more strongly than the other alkali metals. Separation factors were higher with the phenols than with the other extractants. Acid Recovery by Amine Extraction. Preliminary tests showed the potential usefulness of tertiary amines for recovering and purifying phosphoric acid from the highly contaminated wet-process acid produced in the fertilizer industry. Water stripping of the amine solvent yielded a product that was more than 1.5 M in H/ sub 2/PO/sub 6/ and was almost free of iron and aluminum. Final-Cycle Plutonium Recovery by Amine Extraction. Batch equilibration tests with both aged and fresh samples of Purex-plant 1BP solution showed that the aged but not the fresh samples contained a considerable quantity of zirconium-niobium species highly extractable by the hydrocarbon diluents used with amines and other extractants. The amounts of zirconium-niobium extractable from the aged solution were sufficient to account for the low decontamination previously obtained when aged plant 1BP solution was used to continuous countercurrent testing of the plutonium- recovery flowsheets. Individual and batch cascade tests with the fresh plant solution showed separation and decontamination factors high enough for use in the projected process. Extraction of Lanthanides and Transplutoniums by Dialkylphosphoric Acids. The behavior of americium and curium relative to the lanthanides in extraction by di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (HDEHP) from carboxylic acids was shifted from the behavior in extractions from mineral acids, where americium is similar to promethium. The shift was greatest in extractions from oxydiacetic acid, where cerium was 4 times as extractable as americium, while differences within the element groups were very small. Extractions from nitric acid were increased by adding glycine (aminoacetic acid). Extractions were greatly reduced by adding a phenol to HDEHP. Ditridecylphosphoric acid (HDTDP) was a stronger extractant than HDEHP and gave smaller differences beplease delete the above abstract 1799-

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• NSA Number: NSA-18-001799
• OSTI ID: 4153914
• Report Number(s): ORNL-3496
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-64
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CHEMISTRY
ACETIC ACID
ACIDITY
ACTINIDES
ADDITIVES
ALCOHOLS
ALKALI METALS
ALKANES
ALKYL RADICALS
ALUMINUM NITRATES
AMERICIUM
AMERICIUM COMPOUNDS
AMINES
AMINO ACIDS
AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS
AMSCO
AROMATICS
BAMBP
BENZENE
BENZYL RADICALS
BOILING
BUTYL PHOSPHATES
BUTYL RADICALS
CERIUM
CESIUM
CESIUM COMPLEXES
CESIUM COMPOUNDS
CESIUM SILICATES
CHLOROFORM
CITRIC ACID
CLEANING
COMBUSTION
CONFIGURATION
COUNTER CURRENT
CURIUM
CYCLOALKANES
DECONTAMINATION
DEHPA
DIAGRAMS
EFFICIENCY
ETHERS
ETHYL RADICALS
EUROPIUM
EXTRACTION COLUMNS
FABRICATION
FERTILIZERS
FISSION PRODUCTS
FLUORIDES
FUEL CYCLE
GERMANIUM
GLYCINE
HAFNIUM
HDT