Removal of organic solvents from aqueous process streams

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10625178-B2
Application number	US-201816120727-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 4, 2018
Priority date	Mar 10, 2016
Publication date	Apr 21, 2020
Grant date	Apr 21, 2020

Abstract

A method for separating organic solvent(s) from an aqueous process stream including organic solvent(s), includes passing the aqueous stream including organic solvent(s) through a granular bed including glass granules, wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 1.0 mm.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for separating organic solvent(s) from an aqueous process stream comprising organic solvent(s), the method comprising:
passing said aqueous process stream comprising organic solvent(s) through a granular bed comprising glass granules, wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 1.0 mm, and wherein
said aqueous process stream comprises organic solvent(s) is an electrolyte solution resulting from a metal leaching process.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the cross section filtration velocity is from 10 to 80 m/h.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 0.85 mm.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter greater than 0.1 mm.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter greater than 0.2 mm.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 80% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 0.7 mm.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 0.6 mm.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter from 0.3 to 0.7 mm.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said glass granules are spherical.

10. A method of using glass particles for separating organic solvent(s) from an aqueous process stream comprising organic solvent(s), comprising:
utilizing glass granules wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 1.0 mm, and wherein
the aqueous process stream comprising organic solvent(s) is an electrolyte solution resulting from a metal leaching process.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 0.85 mm.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter greater than 0.2 mm.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter from 0.3 to 0.7 mm.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein said glass granules are spherical.

15. A method for recovering metal(s) from a starting material comprising said metal(s), comprising:
(i) leaching the starting material in a leaching solution to obtain a pregnant leaching solution;
(ii) extracting the metal(s) from the pregnant leaching solution by a extraction solution comprising organic solvent(s) to obtain an organic solution comprising the metal(s);
(iii) stripping metals(s) from the organic solution comprising the metal(s) with an aqueous solution to obtain an electrolyte solution comprising said metal(s);
(iv) removing any remaining organic solvent(s) from the electrolyte solution by the method claimed in claim 1 , to obtain a purified electrolyte solution; and
(v) recovering metal(s) from the purified electrolyte solution.

Assignees

• Outotec Finland Oy

Inventors

• Kuosa Markku
• Häkkinen Antti
• Tanttu Leena
• Jauhiainen Timo
• Ekberg Bjarne

Classifications

• B01D17/045

  with coalescers · CPC title

• B01D17/04

  Breaking emulsions · CPC title

• B01D17/10 Primary

  with stationary filtering elements · CPC title

• B01D39/06

  Inorganic material, e.g. asbestos fibres, glass beads or fibres · CPC title

• B01D2239/1241

  Particle diameter · CPC title