• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.672-678
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• 2017

In the production of zirconium cladding tube, a pickling acid solution is used to remove surface contaminants, which generates tons of pickling acid waste. The waste pickling solution is a valuable resource of Hf-free Zr. Many studies have investigated separating the Hf-free Zr source from the waste pickling acid. The results showed that $Ba_2ZrF_8$ precipitates prepared from the waste pickling acid were useful as an electrolyte for the electrorefining of Zr in molten salt. In the present work, electrorefining was performed in a $Ba_2ZrF_8-LiF$ binary electrolyte to recover Zr from a Hf-free CuZr ingot anode prepared by electroreduction. Before electrorefining, two pretreatments are performed. First, electrolyte melting was carried out to determine the eutectic temperature, and second, the electrolyte was treated to eliminate impurities, mainly hydride. After electrorefining, the cathode deposits were analyzed by $O_2$ gas analyzer and SEM-EDX to explore the possibility of recovering nuclear-grade Zr metal. Moreover, the anode was analyzed by SEM-EDX to determine the Zr dissolution depth.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.30-44
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• 2011

This review describes the involvement of different microorganisms for the recovery of uranium from the ore. Mainly Acidithiobacillus forrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans are found to be the most widely used bacteria in the bioleaching process of uranium. The bioleaching of uranium generally follows indirect mechanism in which bacteria provide the ferric iron required to oxidize $U^{4+}$. Commercial applications of bioleaching have been incorporated for extracting valuable metals, due to its favorable process economics and reduced environmental problems compared to conventional metal recovery processes such as smelting. At present the uranium is recovered through main bioleaching techniques employed by heap, dump and in situ leaching. Process development has included recognition of the importance of aeration of bioheaps, and improvements in stirred tank reactor design and operation. Concurrently, knowledge of the key microorganisms involved in these processes has advanced, aided by advances in molecular biology to characterize microbial populations.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.365-369
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• 2001

EAF's dust has been treated mainly by pyrometallurgical reduction process in rotary kiln furnace to recover valuable metal elements such as Zn and to avoid the disposal of hazardous materials to waste. Recently, hydrometallurgical eletrowinning of zinc from a zinc-amino chloride solution obtained by the leaching of EAF's dust was developed to recover high grade zinc metal from EAF’s dust. But there are some disadvantages in each process such as difficulty of operation condition control and sticking problem in kiln process and low extractability and recovery of zinc owing to insoluble zinc-ferrite in electrowinning process. We propose a new combined process of pyrometallurgical one and hydrometallurgical one to treat EAF's dust efficiently and economically. In this study, ammonium chloride solution leaching of crude zinc oxide recovered from reduction of EAF's dust was carried out to find out the efficiency of zinc extraction from it and the possibility for performance of eletrowinning in the proposed process. Effects of various leaching variables ruck as leaching temperature, concentration of leaching solution and leaching time were investigated. And the leaching results of the crude zinc oxide were compared with those of EAF's dust. The extraction percents of zinc in ammonium chloride solution leaching of the crude zinc oxide recovered from reduction of EAF's dust were above 80% after 60 minutes of leaching under the leaching condition of 4M NH$_4$CI concentration and above leaching temperature of 7$0^{\circ}C$. And the concentrations of zinc in the leached solution were obtained above 50g/$\ell$. The activation energy calculated for zinc extraction in NH$_4$CI leaching was 58.1 KJ/㏖ for EAF's dust and 15.8 KJ/㏖ for the crude zinc oxide recovered from reduction of EAF's dust.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.15 no.6 s.74
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• pp.10-15
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• 2006

As a basic study on recovery of valuable metals such as vanadium and nickel from metal oxide obtained from waste orimulsion ash, we conducted selectively leaching of vanadium and nickel using $Na_2CO_3$ leaching and ammoniacal leaching, respectively. The 97% of vanadium was selectively leached at an optimum experimental condition, 50g/L $Na_2CO_3$, pulp density 50g/L, and 35% $H_2O_2$ 50ml/L, $25^{\circ}C$... for 1 hr, whereas no nickel was leached. In ammoniacal leaching study, 95% of nickel was selectively leached at the optimal experimental condition, $NH_4OH\;2M,\;(NH_4){_2}SO_4$ 1.5M, pulp density 50g/L, 25, for 4 hr along with 3% of vanadium.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.61-69
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• 2010

S.M.C (DSME), only operating gold mine in Korea, is processing about 160 ton/day to recover gold and more than 150 ton/day of tailing is produced. Some portion of the tailings are used as a filler material after drying, but most of them are stored on the tailing dam. As a result of chemical analysis by a fire assay method, it contained Au 1.5~2.0 g/ton and 225~300 g per day of gold is getting discarded. It is urgent to develop a technology to recover and reutilize Au. In the present study, flotation tests were carried out to recovery gold for the tailings. Test results show that products with gold grade 21.31 g/ton(Au grade) and 62.73% (Au recovery) were obtained under the optimal conditions including KAX addition rate 97.2 g/ton, frother AF 65 (0.248 l/ton) and depressant sodium silicate (4 kg/ton), it's possible to recover one of the most valuable metal Au, by re-feeding to rougher flotation.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 2020

With rapid increasing production and installation, recycling of photovoltaic modules has become the main issue. According to the research, the accumulation of waste modules will reach to 8600 tons in 2030. Moreover, Crystalline-silicon (c-Si) Photovoltaic modules account for more than 90% of the waste. C-Si PV modules contain 1.3% of weight of photovoltaic ribbon inside which contains the most of lead, tin and copper in the PV modules, which would cause environmental and humility problem. This study provided a valuable metal separation process for PV ribbons. Ribbons content 82.1% of Cu, 8.9% of Sn, 5.2% of Pb, and 3.1% of Ag. All of them were leached by 3M of hydrochloric acid in the optimal condition. Ag was halogenated to AgCl and precipitated. Cu ion was extracted and separated from Pb and Sn by Lix984N then stripped by 3M H2SO4. The effect of the optimal parameters of extraction was also studied in this essay. The maximum extraction efficiency of Cu ion was 99.64%. The separation condition of Pb and Sn were obtained by adjusting the pH value to 4 thought ammonia to precipitate and separate Pb and Sn. The recovery of Pb and Sn can reach 99%.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.62-68
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• 2020

In new millennium, wide-reaching demands for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst have been increased gradually in new millennium. SCR catalyst can prevent the NO_x emission to protect the environment. In SCR catalyst the main composition of the catalyst is typically TiO₂ (70~80%), WO₃ (7~10%), V₂O₅ (~1%) and others. When the SCR catalysts are used up and disposed to landfills, it is problematic that those should exist in the landfill site permanently due to their extremely low degradability. A new advanced technology needs to be developed primarily to protect environment and then recover the valuable metals. Hydrometallurgical techniques such as leaching and liquid-liquid extraction was designed and developed for the spent SCR catalyst processing. In a first stage, V and W selectively leached from spent SCR catalyst, then both the metals were processed by liquid-liquid extraction process. Various commercial extractants such as D2EHPA, PC 88A, TBP, Cyanex 272, Aliquat 336 were tested for selective extraction of title metals. Scrubbing and stripping studies were tested and optimized for vanadium and tungsten extraction and possible separation. 3^rd phase studies were optimized by using iso-decanol reagent.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.23-29
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• 2018

Recently rapid economic growth and technological development have led to an increase in the generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). As the amount of electric and electronic waste generated increases, the importance of processing waste printed circuit boards (PCB) is also increasing. Various studies have been conducted to recycle various valuable metals contained in a waste PCB in an environmentally friendly and economical manner. To get anode slime containing Ag and Au, Anode copper prepared from PCB scraps was used by means of electro-refining. Ag and Au recovery was conducted by leaching, direct reduction, and ion exchange method. In the case of silver, the anode slime was leached at 3 M $HNO_3$, 100 g/L, $70^{\circ}C$, and Ag was recovered by precipitation, alkali dissolution, and reduction method. In the case of gold, the nitrate leaching residues of the anode slime was leached at 25% aqua regia, 200 g/L, $70^{\circ}C$, and Au was recovered by pH adjustment, ion exchange resin adsorption, desorption and reduction method. The purity of the obtained Au and Ag were confirmed to be 99.99%.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.26-33
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• 2022

Owing to the demand for lithium-ion batteries, the recovery of valuable metals from waste lithium-ion batteries is required in future. A pyrometallurgical treatment is appropriate for recycling a large number of waste lithium-ion batteries, but Li loss to slag and dust present a significant challenge. This research investigated carbonation roasting and water leaching behaviors in Li-ion batteries by graphite addition to recover Li from the NCM-based cathode materials of waste Li-ion batteries. When 10 wt% of graphite was added, CO and CO₂ gases were emitted with a rapid weight reduction at apporoximately 850 K, when heated in Ar and CO₂ atmosphere. After the rapid weight reduction, NCM was decomposed and reduced to metal oxides and pure metals. In the carbonation roasting of black powder (NCM+graphite), O₂ is generated via the decomposition of NCM, and an oxides, such as Li₂O and NiO were were also generated. Subsequently, Li₂O reacts with CO₂ to generate Li₂CO₃, and a part of NiO was reduced by graphite to produce metal Ni. In addition, up to 94.5 % Li₂CO₃ with ~99.95 % purity was recovered via water leaching after carbonation roasting.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.535-541
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• 2017

On the basis of 200 ppm of Ag and 120 l/h of feed flow rate, we built a pilot plant of an ion exchange fiber system having an double tube type ion exchange chamber with strong base ion exchange fiber (FIVAN A-6) which was designed to replace fibers easily and to eliminate the need for a fixture. The following results were obtained for the double tube type of ion exchange fiber system with an ion exchange capacity of 4.6 meq/g for Ag. The adsorption process was operated in the range of 40~90 l/h after confirming the effect of the flow rate and, pH did not affect formation of complex ion of Ag in the range of pH 7~12. In the case of backwash process, the recovery rate of Ag was tested in the range of 60~120 l/h and comparative experiments were carried out using NaOH, $NH_4Cl$, and NaCl as the chemicals for backwash. Although the desorption time was shortened at higher concentration, the desorption efficiency per mol was lowered. Therefore, it was confirmed that the desorption time and the concentration should be well balanced to operate economically. The desorption pattern of the backwash process is slower than the adsorption process and takes a lot of time. The results showed that the Ag adsorption ratio was 99.5% or more and the Ag recovery ratio was 96% or more, and commercialization was possible.