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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Reactor analysis for selective metal ion extraction in liquid dispersions

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5237359

The goal of this project is to provide fundamental models for the rational design of liquid extraction processes to predict conversion and selectivity for the hydrometallurgical extraction of metals. The dispersed phase models developed incorporate thermodynamic chemical equilibria, chemical kinetics, mass transfer processes, and droplet mixing. Thermodynamic phase equilibrium and kinetic data for two systems have been obtained and analyzed for models to predict interfacial flux. The interfacial kinetics of the iron (3) sulfate-{beta}-alkenyl-8-hydroxy quinoline ({beta}A8HQ)/xylene system were studied using a liquid jet recycle reactor. Also, a kinetic model in the presence of mass transfer was developed for the cobalt(2) nitrate-acetate buffer/di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid-toluene system in a modified Lewis cell contractor. The performance of a continuous flow stirred tank extractor (CFSTE) for the above two hydrometallurgical extraction systems was studied to verify predictive models. A novel laser capillary spectrophotometer was developed to measure bivariate drop size/concentration distributions in turbulent liquid dispersions. The instrument permits the analysis of the extent of droplet mixing on extractor performance. A dispersed phase simulation model was employed to analyze experiments for the cobalt extraction in a CFSTE. Excellent agreement was obtained between experiments and predictions. These results verify the utility of this fundamental approach.

Research Organization:
Syracuse Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-82ER13002
OSTI ID:
5237359
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/13002-1; ON: DE91018202
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English