A Novel technique Pulse Sieve Plate Column: Prospect of its utilization for solvent extraction of copper from sulfate solution

Abstract

The rapid enhancement of E-waste due to improvement in technology and electronic equipments and the generation of waste effluents from the electronic industries during the manufacture of microchips containing lots of metals especially copper, The excessive use of which may be harmful to the environment as well as in human body. So a process has been developed to extract copper from these waste effluents which can be recycled further. The extraction of copper from 2 g/L Cu solution with LIX 84 using an indigenously designed and fabricated pulse sieve plate column at NML (National metallurgical laboratory, Jamshedpur) has been investigated. The studies were carried out at different O/A ratio and pulse velocity, the extraction of copper was found to increase 31.66% to 42.3% with increase in pulse velocity from 10.77 to 20.14 m/s under the same O/A of 1/3. The maximum extraction of copper was observed to 53.54% when O/A ratio was equal to 0.786:1 at the pulse velocity of 67.64 m/s. Further, studies are required to be carried out by modifying the design of the pulse column to improve the efficiency.