Recovery of Co and Ni from Strong Acidic Solution by Cyanex 301

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to separate or recover Co and Ni using Cyanex 301 from process by-products and waste resources containing Co and Ni. To separate and recover Co and Ni from simulated leaching solutions, 10 v/v% Cyanex 301 was used as an extractant in this study; Li was not extracted. At equilibrium pH 1.5 and a phase ratio (A/O) of 1.0, 0.44% of Mg and 11.57% of Mn were extracted, and more than 99% of Co and Ni were extracted. McCabe-Thiele diagram analysis confirmed that more than 99.9% of Co and Ni could be extracted simultaneously through two-stage extraction with an extraction phase ratio (A/O) of 2. It was possible to extract Mg and Mn simultaneously through the scrubbing process. In the scrubbing process, more than 99% of Mg and 87% of Mn were scrubbed using 0.05 M of H 2 SO 4 , and 99.9% of Mg and more than 80% of Mn were scrubbed using 0.05 M of HCl. In the stripping process, 93% of Co and 5% of Ni were stripped selectively by 3.0 M of H 2 SO 4 . However, when 8.0 M of HCl was used as a stripping solution, more than 99.9% of Co and more than 90% of Ni were stripped simultaneously.