Break
AIChE Annual Meeting
2024
2024 AIChE Annual Meeting
Forest and Plant Bioproducts Division
High-value and platform chemicals from renewable resources and wastes
Wednesday, October 30, 2024 - 8:54am to 9:12am
The shift towards renewable energy is increasing the demand for batteries and, consequently, the need for efficient extractions of key elements such as copper, lithium, and nickel. Hydrometallurgy, which uses aqueous solutions to extract metals, often involves leaching to selectively dissolve desired metal compounds while leaving the impurities in solid form. Managing iron waste to prevent environmental contamination while maintaining leach cycle efficiency is a continuous industry challenge. To address this, the West Lab is investigating a novel leaching process for copper extraction that aims to enhance waste management and maximize the recovery of vanadiumâ a valuable and costly reagent used in the leaching process. The proposed iron control method converts iron from the post leach solution (PLS) into an iron-sulfate solid, Jarosite. Adapting an iron-jarosite synthesis process from zinc hydrometallurgy, the optimal pH, temperature, and cation conditions were identified to maximize jarosite precipitation and minimize vanadium content in the solid form. A 100mL batch reactor was established with synthesized PLS to develop an effective and repeatable separation procedure at lab scale. Analytical techniques, including Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) and Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD), confirmed a K-Jarosite purity of 92.6% and a vanadium recovery of about 80% in solution. Future work aims to explore additional metallurgical methods for improving vanadium and iron separation, reducing environmental impact by decreasing vanadium losses and establishing a stable iron waste product for safe disposal or repurpose in other industries, such as steel production.