Separation of copper, zinc, cobalt and nickel ions by supported liquid membrane technique using LIX 84I, TOPS-99 and Cyanex 272

Separation of copper, zinc, cobalt and nickel ions from synthetic leach liquor using supported liquid membrane was studied. LIX 84I, TOPS-99 and Cyanex 272 were used as the mobile carrier for the supported liquid membrane. From the synthetic leach liquor containing 8.97 mole/m3 copper, 40.83 mole/m3 zinc, 27.49 mole/m3 cobalt, 420.51 mole/m3 nickel and 75.677 mole/m3 ammonium sulphate, copper was first separated using LIX 84I followed by zinc using TOPS-99 and cobalt using Cyanex 272. The solution was made copper free using 10% LIX 84I in the membrane phase and 900 mole/m3 H2SO4 in the strip solution at pH 4.5. After copper was separated, the leach liquor was made zinc free at pH 3.65 using 0.15 M TOPS-99 in the membrane phase and 900 mole/m3 H2SO4 in the strip solution followed by separation of cobalt using Cyanex 272. It was observed that co-permeations of zinc, cobalt and nickel with copper using LIX 84I were 0.076, 0.085 and 0.10 mole/m3, respectively. Co-permeations of cobalt and nickel with zinc using TOPS-99 were 0.187 and 0.323 mole/m3 and co-permeation of nickel with cobalt using Cyanex 272 was 3.407 mole/m3, respectively. Separation factors for metal ions with different extractants were calculated and reported.