Renewable isoparaffins as diluent in hydrometallurgical liquid-liquid extraction process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10689728-B2
Application number	US-201716315942-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 4, 2017
Priority date	Jul 5, 2016
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to hydrometallurgical technologies wherein liquid-liquid extraction, also called solvent extraction, is used to separate and concentrate metal ions. Exemplary embodiments relate to solvent extraction of copper and a diluent useful in copper solvent extraction. A bio-based composition can fulfil physico-chemical properties that are desired for solvent extraction. Moreover, a composition is disclosed, which in addition to providing more environmental friendly alternative, can also improve the solvent extraction process of copper.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A biobased composition for liquid-liquid extraction of metals, the biobased composition comprising:
5 vol-%-40 vol-% metal extraction reagent; and
60 vol-%-95 vol % diluent, wherein the diluent includes:
10 wt %-100 wt % of a first organic diluent containing hydrocarbons having 80 wt %-98 wt % C 15 -C 20 hydrocarbons with at least 60 wt % isoparaffins from a total amount of the hydrocarbons; and
optionally, 0 wt %-90 wt % of a second organic diluent component having more than 10 wt % naphthenes;
wherein a 14 C isotope content of the first organic diluent is more than 90%.

2. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the first organic diluent comprises:
0 wt %-5 wt % naphthenes, and 95 wt %-100 wt % paraffins.

3. The composition of claim 2 , wherein the first organic diluent comprises:
paraffins, wherein of the paraffins 5 wt %-15 wt % is C 15 hydrocarbons, 10 wt %-35 wt % is C 16 hydrocarbons, 10 wt %-30 wt % is C 17 hydrocarbons, 25 wt % 45 wt % is C 18 hydrocarbons, more than 0 wt %-5 wt % is C 19 hydrocarbons and more than 0 wt %-5 wt % is C 20 hydrocarbons.

4. The composition of claim 2 , comprising:
0 wt %-2 wt % naphthenes, and 98 wt %-100 wt % paraffins.

5. The composition of claim 1 , wherein a total amount of isoparaffins in the first organic diluent is at least 85 wt %.

6. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the first organic diluent comprises:
C 15 hydrocarbons having 5 wt %-20 wt % n-paraffins and 80 wt %-95 wt % i-paraffins;
C 16 hydrocarbons having 0.5 wt %-15 wt % n-paraffins and 85 wt %-99.5 wt % i-paraffins;
C 17 hydrocarbons having 3 wt %-15 wt % n-paraffins and 85 wt %-97 wt % i-paraffins;
C 18 hydrocarbons having 0.1 wt %-10 wt % n-paraffins and 90 wt %-99.9 wt % i-paraffins;
C 19 hydrocarbons having 0.1 wt %-15 wt % n-paraffins and 85 wt %-99.9 wt % i-paraffins; and
C 20 hydrocarbons having 0.1 wt %-10 wt % n-paraffins and 90 wt %-99.9 wt % i-paraffins.

7. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the amount of metal extraction reagent is 15 vol-%-25 vol-% of the composition.

8. The composition of claim 7 , wherein the amount of first organic diluent is 10 wt %-90 wt %, and the amount of second organic diluent is 10 wt %-90 wt % of the diluent.

9. The composition of claim 7 , wherein the amount of first organic diluent is 10 wt %-30 wt %, and the amount of second organic diluent is 70 wt %-90 wt % of the diluent.

10. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the amount of first organic diluent is 10 wt %-90 wt %, and the amount of second organic diluent is 10-90 wt % of the diluent.

11. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the amount of first organic diluent is 10 wt %-30 wt %, and the amount of second organic diluent is 70 wt %-90 wt % of the diluent.

12. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the metal extraction reagent is hydroxyoxime.

13. The composition of claim 1 , comprising 10 wt %-50 wt % naphthenes.

14. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the 14 C isotope content of the first organic diluent is more than 99%.

15. A method of extracting metals with a biobased composition, the method comprising:
liquid-liquid extracting a metal with the biobased composition having a metal extraction reagent and a first organic diluent containing 80 wt %-98 wt % C 15 -C 20 hydrocarbons having at least 60 wt % isoparaffins from a total amount of hydrocarbons,
wherein a 14 C isotope content of the first organic diluent is more than 90%.

16. The method of extracting metals with a biobased composition, according to claim 15 , wherein the metal is copper.

Assignees

• Outotec Finland Oy
• Neste Corp

Inventors

• Paatero Erkki
• Saario Rami
• KORTELAINEN Jukka
• Rouhiainen Maija
• Rämö Virpi

Classifications

• C22B3/26

  by liquid-liquid extraction using organic compounds · CPC title

• C22B3/30

  Oximes · CPC title

• Y02P10/20

  Recycling · CPC title

• C22B3/16

  in organic solutions · CPC title

• Y02P20/582

  Recycling of unreacted starting or intermediate materials · CPC title