• Resources Recycling
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.36-45
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• 2011

The recovery of platinum group metals (PGMs) from the leach solution of spent auto-catalyst and the wash solution of the leach residue was investigated in the laboratory scale experiments by the cementation process using metal powders as the reductant. In this study, the effect of Al, Mg and Zn powders on the cementation process was particularly examined. Aluminum powder was selected as the most suitable reductant for the cementation of PGMs. At the cementation time of 10 minute under the aluminium stoichimetric amount of 19.3 and the reaction temperature of $50{\sim}60^{\circ}C$, the recovery of platinum group metals from the leach solution of the spent auto-catalyst was found to be 99.3%, 99.4%, 90.2% for Pt, Pd and Rh, respectively. Under the same conditions with the aluminium stoichimetric amount of 45, the recovery of platinum group metals from the wash solution of the leach residue of spent catalyst was observed to be 97%, 97% and 90% for Pt, Pd and Rh, respectively. In addition, it was possible to upgrade the platinum group metals in the precipitates obtained from the cementation process by about 10% through the removal of metal impurities by the nitric acid leaching at ambient temperature.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.17-24
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• 2020

In this study, rare earth elements (REE) leaching from a refractory REE ore containing goethite as a major gangue mineral was conducted, introducing a two-stage method of chemical decomposition-acid leaching. At the chemical decomposition step, using one of alkaline agent, NaOH, the ore was decomposed, changing NaOH concentration from 20 to 50 wt% at 10% (w/w) of pulp density and the maximum temperature achieved without boiling at each NaOH concentration. With increasing NaOH concentration, light REE (Ce, La and Nd) and iron were concentrated in the solid phase which is the decomposed product, while aluminum (Al) and phosphorus (P) were removed to the liquid phase, and their concentrations in the solid phase were down to 0.96 and 0.17%, respectively. In addition, through XRD analysis, it was found that the crystallinity of goethite was considerably decreased. At the acid leaching step, the product decomposed by 50 wt% NaOH was leached at 3.0 M HCl and 80 ℃ for 3 hr, then the REE leaching efficiency was above 94% (Ce 80%), and the leaching efficiencies of Al and P were decreased to 12 and 0%, respectively. Therefore, in terms of both REE leaching efficiency and impurity removal, those decomposition and leaching conditions were chosen as optimum processing methods of the investigated material. In terms of REE leaching mechanism, because REE and iron leaching efficiencies showed the positive correlation each other, so it can be concluded that decreasing crystallinity of goethite affect the improvement of REE leaching.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.28-37
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• 2020

In this study, the effect of precipitation temperature, ammonium chloride amount and addition method, vanadium and sodium hydroxide content of the solution on the precipitation of ammonium metavanadate were examined by using the sodium vanadate(NaVO₃) solution in alkali region as a starting material. As the pH of solution decreased, the addition amount of ammonium chloride and the vanadium content of the solution increased, the precipitation rate of ammonium metavanadate increased. In this research condition, the basic conditions for obtaining more than 90% of precipitation yield were 10,000mg/L of vanadium content, 2equivalents of ammonium chloride addition, room temperature, and 2 hours of precipitation time. The size of precipitated particles decreased with increasing precipitation rate. Especially when liquid ammonium chloride was injected into the solution, the precipitation rate was the slowest and the particle size of the precipitate was the largest. After the primary precipitation by adding ammonium chloride as a solid, the secondary precipitation was carried out by adding new reactants. At this time, the precipitation with added ammonium chloride solid was not affected by the precipitates present in the solution. However, when liquid ammonium chloride was added, new precipitate was deposited on the surface of the precipitate present in the solution, increasing its size. Due to the difference in ammonium metavanadate solubility to temperature, the precipitation temperature at the vanadium content of 10,000mg/L in the solution affected the precipitation rate of ammonium metavanadate and the precipitation temperature did not affect the precipitation rate at a high concentration of more than 30,000mg/L vanadium content in the solution.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.68-74
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• 2021

This study investigated formaldehyde (HCHO) removal by preparing porous supports using domestic low-grade silica coated with Co-ZSM5 and Cu-ZSM5 as the catalysts. First, the sample of the raw material for the support contained 90% silica with quartz crystal phase, which was confirmed as low-grade silica. According to Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analyses, the catalysts, Co-ZSM5 and Cu-ZSM5, were successfully coated on the surface of the porous silica supports. During the removal test of HCHO using the prepared Co-ZSM5 and Cu-ZSM5 coated beads, depending on the reaction temperature, the Co-ZSM5 coated beads exhibited higher removal efficiencies (>97%) than the Cu-ZSM5 beads at 200 ℃. The higher efficiency of the Co-ZSM5 coating may be attributed to its superior surface activity properties (BET surface area and pore volume) that lead to the favorable HCHO decomposition. Therefore, Co-ZSM5 was determined to be the suitable catalyst for removing HCHO as a coating on a porous support fabricated using domestic low-grade silica.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 2021

This study investigated the effect of the type of alkaline precipitant used on the synthesis of lithium hydroxide by examining the behavior of lithium hydroxide produced using lithium sulfate recovered from a waste lithium secondary battery as a raw material. The double-replacement reaction (DRR) process was used to remove the impurities contained in the lithium salt precursor of lithium sulfate and to improve the efficiency of the synthesis of lithium hydroxide. The experiment was conducted by control the molar ratio of the precursor ([Li]/[OH]), the reaction temperature, and the composition of the alkaline precipitant (KOH, Ca(OH)2, Ba(OH)2) used for the production of highly-crystalline lithium hydroxide. A secondary solid-liquid separation was performed following the reaction to remove the impurities generated, and the purified aqueous solution of lithium hydroxide was evaporated to remove the moisture and obtain the product as a powder. The crystallinity and synthesis behavior of the product were examined.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.45-52
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• 2019

$TiO_2$ as a raw material for producing titanium can be produced by carbon reduction of natural ilmenite ores over 1823 K and acid leaching of the obtained titanium-rich slag. However, the conventional process can cause very high energy consumption and a large amount of leaching residues. In the present study, we proposed the sulfurization of $FeTiO_3$ with $Na_2SO_4$ at temperatures below 1573 K, which can separate Fe in $FeTiO_3$ as the FeS based sulfide phase and Ti as the $TiO_2-Na_2O$ based oxide phase. This study is a fundamental study for sulfurization of $FeTiO_3$ to investigate the influence of reducing atmosphere, reaction temperature and the sulfur/Fe ratio on the separability and distribution behaviors of of Fe, Ti, and Na between the oxide phase and the sulfurized phase. At 1573 K and carbon saturation condition, the Fe can be separated from $FeTiO_3$ as Fe-C-S metal and a part of FeS, and the concentration of Fe in oxide decreased to 4 mass% after sulfurization.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.125-132
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• 2020

Enrichment possibilities for recovering rare earth elements contained in coal bottom ash generated from domestic circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) were identified. The transport characteristics of the REEs according to the separation and removal of major minerals were evaluated using sieving and leaching process. The main minerals of bottom ash were identified as anhydrite, magnetite, and quartz, and this was confirmed as a 30% of REE content of the world's average coal ash REE value (404 ppm) as a result of the difference in the combustion characteristics of power plants (REE contents in starting material: 123 ppm). More than 90% of the REEs contained in the bottom ash were found to move mainly with magnetite, and less than 10% of the components were found to move with the quartz. Therefore, In order to recover rare earth elements from coal bottom ashes generated from CFBC boiler, it is necessary to select the main rare elements such as magnetite and develop a pretreatment and concentration process.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.23-33
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• 2020

Marine algae(Macro algae) are easily bio-degradable, and by-products are available as feed and fertilizer. The biomass of marine algae has higher CO2 absorption capacity than the wood system, and is highly valuable in use due to its fast growth speed and wide cultivation area without special cost for raw material production. In 2018, Marine algae production was 1,722,486ton, such as Saccharina japonica, Undaria pinnatifida and Porphyra tenera, the large amounts of by-products have been generated in the food processing facilities for commercialization. In this study, Saccharina japonica, Undaria pinnatifida were collected in the south coast region and Porphyra tenera was collected in the west coast region. The theoretical methane potential and biochemical methane potential(BMP) were analyzed, and Modified Gompertz model and Parallel first order kinetics model were adopted for the interpretation of the cumulative methane production curves. The theoretical methane potential of Saccharina japonica, Undaria pinnatifida and Porphyra tenera were 0.393, 0.373 and 0.435 N㎥/kg-VS, respectively. BMP obtained by the Modified gompertz model 0.226, 0.227, and 0.241 N㎥/kg-VS for Saccharina japonica, Undaria pinnatifida and Porphyra tenera, respectively. And BMP obtained by the Parallel first order kinetics model were 0.220, 0.243, and 0.240 N㎥/kg-VS for Saccharina japonica, Undaria pinnatifida and Porphyra tenera, respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.41-50
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• 2022

Recently, research on carbon adsorbents has been active as an interest in improving the environment such as indoor and outdoor air quality. Considering that causative substances deteriorate the air quality are basically volatile organic compounds, it is important to improve the hydrophobicity of the carbon materials for better removal efficiency. This study presents a method for improving hydrophobicity of carbon and a measurement of the hydrophobicity. Generally, methods of improving the hydrophobicity of carbon materials are heat treatment, acid/alkali treatment, coating and immersion with hydrophobic materials. However, it collapses the pore structure and reduces the adsorption capacity. Therefore, this study briefly introduce not only the general method for improving carbon materials' hydrophobicity but also the method for converting the precursor of the material is briefly introduced. Futhermore, this study introduces a analytical technique used to determine hydrophobic modification or not, and aims to enhance the understanding of carbon materials.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2021

Demand for lithium-based secondary batteries is greatly increasing with the explosive growth of related industries, such as mobile devices and electric vehicles. In Korea, there are several top-rated global lithium-ion battery manufacturers accounting for 40% of the global secondary battery business. Most discarded lithium secondary batteries are recycled as scrap to recover valuable metals, such as Nickel and Cobalt, but residual wastes are disposed of according to the residual lithium-ion concentration. Furthermore, there has not been an attempt on the possibility of water discharge system contamination due to the concentration of lithium ions, and the effluent water quality standards of public sewage treatment facilities are becoming stricter year after year. In this study, the as-received waste water generated from the cathode electrode coating process in the manufacturing of high-nickel-based NCM cathode material used for high-performance and long-term purposes was analyzed. We suggested a facile recycling process chart for waste water treatment. We revealed a correlation between lithium-ion concentration and pH effect according to the proposed waste water of each recycling process through analyzing standard water quality tests and daphnia ecological toxicity. We proposed a realistic waste water treatment plan for lithium electrode manufacturing plants via comparison with other industries' ecotoxicology.