Separation and recovery of chromium and vanadium from vanadium-containing chromate solution by ion exchange

•V(V) can be completely separated from chromate solution by ion exchange.•Resin D314 can selectively adsorb vanadium from the solution.•The adsorption can be carried out at the pH range of 2.5–6.5.•V and Cr can be separately recovered by double-adsorption with the resin.

To recover vanadium from vanadium-containing chromate solution, the separation of vanadium from chromium using the weak base resin D314 both in batch and column test was studied. Experimental results showed that in the pH range of 2.5–6.5, by double-adsorption with the resin, vanadium and chromium can be completely separated and recovered from vanadium-containing chromate solution. In the adsorption of vanadium, the bed volume reached 20 using the vanadium-containing chromate solution containing 2.21 g/L V2O5 and 3.89 g/L Cr2O3 under pH 6.45 at 25 °C for contact time of 60 min. The loaded resin was easily stripped using 2 mol/L NaOH solution, resulting in 106.83 g/L V2O5 and only 0.11 g/L Cr2O3 in strip liquor. The chromium in the effluent was then recovered using the same resin, and the final product of Cr2O3 with purity of 99.2% was obtained from the chromium strip liquor by reduction and precipitation.