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An electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream

In recent years a significant amount of research has gone into the development of a feed pretreatment process for the concentrate refined at Anglo American Platinum's Precious Metals Refiners (PMR). Such a process has the potential to significantly simplify the downstream refining process and reduce...

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Main Author: Bezuidenhout, Chandon
Other Authors: Petersen, Jochen
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Chemical Engineering 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Bezuidenhout, Chandon
author2 Petersen, Jochen
author_browse Bezuidenhout, Chandon
Petersen, Jochen
author_facet Petersen, Jochen
Bezuidenhout, Chandon
author_sort Bezuidenhout, Chandon
collection Thesis
description In recent years a significant amount of research has gone into the development of a feed pretreatment process for the concentrate refined at Anglo American Platinum's Precious Metals Refiners (PMR). Such a process has the potential to significantly simplify the downstream refining process and reduce the number of unit processes required for purification. One of the considered options involves a high temperature oxidative roast process followed by a high temperature hydrochlorination process to volatilise base metal chlorides and other impurities. The resulting precious group metal (PGM) concentrate is cleaner and thus requires significantly less process steps to final product. The off-gas from hydrochlorination contains predominantly silver, copper, nickel and iron. This off-gas undergoes a quench-scrub to condense the base metal chlorides. The quench-scrub liquor undergoes a dechlorination process with sulfuric acid to precipitate AgCl(s). The filtrate from this process then undergoes an electrochemical reduction process to recover copper metal concentrate. The objectives of this study were to: i. Determine the operating conditions for an electrochemical reduction process aimed at recovering copper as a copper powder from a sulfuric acid stream containing copper, nickel and iron. ii. Develop a conceptual flowsheet for a batch electrochemical process and estimate the capital cost and operating cost.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:53.390Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Department of Chemical Engineering
publisherStr Department of Chemical Engineering
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24393 An electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream Bezuidenhout, Chandon Petersen, Jochen Chemical Engineering Hydrometallurgy In recent years a significant amount of research has gone into the development of a feed pretreatment process for the concentrate refined at Anglo American Platinum's Precious Metals Refiners (PMR). Such a process has the potential to significantly simplify the downstream refining process and reduce the number of unit processes required for purification. One of the considered options involves a high temperature oxidative roast process followed by a high temperature hydrochlorination process to volatilise base metal chlorides and other impurities. The resulting precious group metal (PGM) concentrate is cleaner and thus requires significantly less process steps to final product. The off-gas from hydrochlorination contains predominantly silver, copper, nickel and iron. This off-gas undergoes a quench-scrub to condense the base metal chlorides. The quench-scrub liquor undergoes a dechlorination process with sulfuric acid to precipitate AgCl(s). The filtrate from this process then undergoes an electrochemical reduction process to recover copper metal concentrate. The objectives of this study were to: i. Determine the operating conditions for an electrochemical reduction process aimed at recovering copper as a copper powder from a sulfuric acid stream containing copper, nickel and iron. ii. Develop a conceptual flowsheet for a batch electrochemical process and estimate the capital cost and operating cost. 2017-05-24T07:08:13Z 2017-05-24T07:08:13Z 2014 Master Thesis Masters MSc (Eng) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24393 eng application/pdf Department of Chemical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Chemical Engineering
Hydrometallurgy
Bezuidenhout, Chandon
An electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream
thesis_degree_str Master's
title An electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream
title_full An electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream
title_fullStr An electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream
title_full_unstemmed An electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream
title_short An electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream
title_sort electrochemical reduction process for the recovery of copper powder from a refinery effluent stream
topic Chemical Engineering
Hydrometallurgy
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24393
work_keys_str_mv AT bezuidenhoutchandon anelectrochemicalreductionprocessfortherecoveryofcopperpowderfromarefineryeffluentstream
AT bezuidenhoutchandon electrochemicalreductionprocessfortherecoveryofcopperpowderfromarefineryeffluentstream