Application of waste frying oil as an extractant for uranium from sulfate leach liquor

The possibility of using the waste frying oil (WFO) as an extractant for uranium from its sulfate liquor has been studied. Several experiments were conducted to determine the relevant factors affecting both the extraction and stripping of the uranium from a synthetic solution. At the optimum conditions, it was found that the maximum uranium uptake would attain 54 mg/g at a solution pH of 3.5. Kinetic characteristics of the loading process have been found to satisfactorily fitting to the pseudo-first-order equation. The obtained optimum conditions have also been applied to investigate the potentiality of the working WFO for the recovery of uranium from the actual sulfate leach liquor of El-Sela ore material (South Eastern Desert of Egypt).