• Resources Recycling
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.64-74
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• 2016

Titanium and iron are closely related in nature, although titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the Earth's crust. Iron in titanium ores must be removed for use as feedstocks in the manufacture of titanium dioxide pigments and pure $TiCl_4$ for metal titanium. In this study, various beneficiation processes of ilmenite for production of $TiO_2$ have been reviewed and compared. Most of these processes involve a combination of pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy. These beneficiation processes of ilmenite generate considerable quantities of wastes primarily in the form of iron salt, iron oxide and acidic effluents. Therefore, it is important that recovery of acid value from waste and conversion of iron bearing waste to useful materials for development of new beneficiation processes of ilmenite.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.30-41
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• 2019

Global production of zinc is about 13 million tons and zinc is the fourth-most widely used primary metal in the world following iron, aluminum and copper. When zinc is recycled to produce secondary zinc, it can save about 75 % of the total energy that is needed to produce the primary zinc from ore, and in therms of $CO_2$ emissions reduced by about 40 %. However, since zinc is mainly used for galvanizing of steel, the recycling rate of zinc is about 25 %, which is lower than other metals. The raw materials for recycling of zinc include dusts generated in the production of steel and brass, sludge in the production process of non-ferrous metals, dross in the melting of zinc ingots or hot dip galvanizing, waste batteries, and metallic scrap. Among them, steelmaking dust and waste batteries are most actively recycled up to now. Most of the recycling process uses pyrometallurgical methods. Recently, however, much attention has been given to a combined process of pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.3-14
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• 2019

Copper is one of the first metals utilized by humankind about 11,500 years ago. But copper is not plentiful metallic element in the earth's crust. Copper has a high thermal and electric conductivity and is relatively corrosion resistant. In principle copper is virtually 100 % recyclable as an element without loss of quality. The recycling of copper scrap reduces the energy consumption and environmental burden, comparing to the primary metal production. Currently, approximately 30% of the global copper supply provides by recycling. Copper scrap is smelted in primary and secondary smelter. Type of furnace and process steps depend on the quality and grade of scrap. Depending on copper content of the secondary raw material, refining is required, which is usually done through electrorefining. This work provides an overview of the primary copper production and recycling process.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.3-14
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• 2019

Lead is one of the common non-ferrous metals used in modern industry. The usage of lead continues to increase and has risen from 5 million tonnes per year worldwide in the 1970s to 11 million tonnes in the 2010s. In principle lead is virtually 100 % recyclable as an element without loss of quality. The recycling of lead scrap reduces the energy consumption and environmental burden, comparing to the primary metal production. Therefore production of secondary lead from scrap has been steadily growing and at present it meets approximately 60 % of usage worldwide. Lead scrap (mainly lead-acid battery) is smelted in primary and secondary smelter. Most secondary lead smelting were performed in a shaft-type furnace (blast furnace), rotary furnace and reverberatory furnace. The lead bullion is either cast into ingots and re-melted in refining kettles or refining is performed on the hot lead bullion immediately after production. This work provides an overview of the primary lead production and recycling process.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.3-13
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• 2021

Nickel is widely used due to its excellent toughness, malleability and enhanced corrosion resistance. Therefore, nickel is indispensable in our daily lives, and it is widely used in basic to advanced applications such as stainless steel, super alloys and electronic devices. Recently, nickel has been widely used as the major material in secondary batteries and capacitors. The use of nickel continues to rise and has increased from 800 thousand tonnes per year worldwide in the 1970s to about 2 million tonnes in the 2010s. However, nickel is a representative rare metal and ranks 23rd among the abundant elements in the earth's crust. This study reviews the current status of the nickel smelting processes as well as the trend in production amount and use. Nickel is extracted by a wide variety of smelting methods depending on the type of ore. These smelting methods are essential for the development of new recycling processes that can extract nickel from secondary nickel resources.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.47-62
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• 2024

Abu Gurdi area is located in the South-eastern Desert of Egypt which considered as volcanic massive sulfide deposits (VMS). The present work aims at investigating the ore mineralogy of Abu Gurdi region in addition to the effectiveness of the hydrometallurgical route for processing these ores using alkaline leaching for the extraction of Zn, Cu, and Pb in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, has been investigated. The factors affecting the efficiency of the alkaline leaching of the used ore including the reagent composition, reagent concentration, leaching temperature, leaching time, and Solid /Liquid ratio, have been investigated. It was noted that the sulfide mineralization consists mainly of chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite, galena and bornite. Gold is detected as rare, disseminated crystals within the gangue minerals. Under supergene conditions, secondary copper minerals (covellite, malachite, chrysocolla and atacamite) were formed. The maximum dissolution efficiencies of Cu, Zn, and Pb at the optimum leaching conditions i.e., 250 g/L NaCO₃ - NaHCO₃ alkali concentration, for 3 hr., at 250 ℃, and 1/5 Solid/liquid (S/L) ratio, were 99.48 %, 96.70 % and 99.11 %, respectively. An apparent activation energy for Zn, Cu and Pb dissolution were 21.599, 21.779 and 23.761 kJ.mol^-1, respectively, which were between those of a typical diffusion-controlled process and a chemical reaction-controlled process. Hence, the diffusion of the solid product layer contributed more than the chemical reaction to control the rate of the leaching process. High pure Cu(OH)₂, Pb(OH)₂, and ZnCl₂ were obtained from the finally obtained leach liquor at the optimum leaching conditions by precipitation at different pH. Finally, highly pure Au metal was separated from the mineralized massive sulfide via using adsorption method.

• 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.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%.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.438-445
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• 2017

Tanzania has abundant copper deposits, but copper-metal extraction remains low there, owing to the lack of suitable copper recovery processes and insufficient funds for developing mining technologies. Accordingly, leaching and solvent extraction methods for the extraction of copper from copper ore were studied with a particular emphasis on developing a simple processing method for small-scale copper mining. Chrysocolla ore was used as the copper-bearing mineral and sulfuric acid was used as the leaching reagent. A maximum copper recovery of 95.1% was obtained when the particles in the sample were smaller than $53{\mu}m$, the concentration of 98%(w/w) sulfuric acid in the leaching solution was 5.0 g/L and the stirring rate was between 60 and 80 rpm. The highest selectivity of $Cu^2+$ in the solvent extraction was obtained using 15% LIX-70 in kerosene. In the pH range from 0.5 to 3.0, the efficiency of $Cu^2+$ extraction increased with increasing pH. However, at pH values higher than 3.0, other metal ions were extracted into the organic phase more readily than $Cu^2+$. The highest solvent extraction rate obtained was 96.5% at pH values of 2.0 and 3.0 using 15% LIX-70.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.270-278
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• 2020

Palladium (Pd) has been widely used in various industrial applications such as jewelry, catalyst, and dental materials despite its limited resources. It has been gaining attention to recover Pd with high purity from the spent materials. This study investigated the optimum conditions for the leaching and recovery of metallic Pd. The leaching parameters are HCl concentration, temperature, time, concentration of oxidants, and pulp density. 97.2% of Pd leaching efficiency was obtained in 3 M HCl with 3 vol% oxidants at 80℃ for 60 min. The ratio of hydrogen peroxide to sodium hypochlorite played a critical role in the leaching efficiency due to the supply of Cl- ions in the leachate. Moreover, the complete recovery of Pd in the leachate was achieved at 80℃ with 0.3 formic acid/leachate after adjusting the pH value of 7. This situation was ascribed to the decomposition of formic acid into hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide at 80℃. ICP-AES and XRD characterized the recovered Pd powder, and the purity of the recovered powder was found to be 99.6%. Consequently, the recovered Pd powder with high purity could be used in circuits, catalyst precursors, and surgical instruments.