Separation of Uranium from Rare Earths using Tertiary Amine from Sulfate Solutions

Authors

  • Carmen Sharaby AL-Azhar University, Faculty of Science, Chemistry Department, P.O. Box 11651 cairo, Egypt
  • Yasser Khawassek Nuclear Materials Authority, P.O. Box 530 El Maadi, Cairo, Egypt
  • Ahmed Eliwa Nuclear Materials Authority, P.O. Box 530 El Maadi, Cairo, Egypt
  • Shimaa Abdo Nuclear Materials Authority, P.O. Box 530 El Maadi, Cairo, Egypt

Keywords:

Uranium, Rare earths, Tri-octyl amine, Extraction, Stripping.

Abstract

A sulfate leach liquor of 0.78 g/l uranium and 0.57 g/L rare earths produced from Abu-Zeniema wastes was subjected to different extraction experiments using tri-octyl amine as a solvent.  Complete extraction of uranium from rare earths sulfate solutions was performed using a sulfate leach liqueur of pH 1.25, 10% TOA in kerosene, 1/20 organic to aqueous phase ratio and stirring for three minutes at room temperature.  The saturation capacity of 14.0 g U/L was performed after three contacts between sulfate leach liquor and TOA organic solvent. The optimum uranium stripping conditions from the saturated TOA solvent were performed using sodium carbonate as a stripping agent with 0.75M molarity, 3 minutes contact time and 1/4 aqueous to organic ratio. Three stages of contacts counter currently were required for uranium stripping from the loaded organic using the optimum stripping conditions. A strip solution of 47.6 g U/L was obtained by two contacts between a fresh saturated solvent and the same carbonate strip solution. A fine grained uranium peroxide cake with 65.1% U was attained from the stripping solution by hydrogen peroxide precipitation at pH 2.

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Published

2017-12-03

How to Cite

Sharaby, C., Khawassek, Y., Eliwa, A., & Abdo, S. (2017). Separation of Uranium from Rare Earths using Tertiary Amine from Sulfate Solutions. International Journal of Sciences: Basic and Applied Research (IJSBAR), 36(7), 86–100. Retrieved from https://www.gssrr.org/index.php/JournalOfBasicAndApplied/article/view/8429

Issue

Vol. 36 No. 7 (2017)

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Articles

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