• Resources Recycling
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.60-67
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• 2016

A scale-up test with a continuous solvent extraction and electro-winning system was carried out to separate and recover copper from a synthetic sulfuric acid solution (Cu 10.5 g/L, Co 2.0 g/L, Ni 15.0 g/L, Fe 0.2 g/L). The solution was introduced into mixer-settlers with four stages of extraction and two stages of stripping for continuous countercurrent solvent extraction to separate copper from nickel and cobalt. The loading was carried out using 40% LIX 84-I(v/v) as extractant with a phase ratio of A : O = 1 : 1. Meanwhile, the stripping was undertaken at a phase ratio of A : O = 1 : 1.5 using depleted electrolyte containing 35.0 g/L Cu and 180 g/L $H_2SO_4$ as stripping solution. The extraction and stripping efficiencies were found to be 96.7% and 91.0%, respectively. The copper composition of the stripped solution (pregnant electrolyte) was 50.0 g/L Cu with impurities of 25 ppm nickel, 5 ppm cobalt and 3 ppm iron. In the electro-winning process, copper metal of 99.833 purity was yielded with current efficiency of 98.9% and current density of $1.50A/dm^2$.