Experimental Studies and Parameter Optimization of Separation of Copper Using Hollow Fibersupported Liquid Membrane

Abstract

The separation of copper from a leach liquor bearing 204.59mol/m(3) Cu, 40.83mol/m(3) Zn, 33.94mol/m(3) Co, 255.58mol/m(3) Ni, and 75.72mol/m(3) (NH4)(2)SO4 has been carried out with a hollow fiber membrane using LIX 84-I as the mobile carrier. Central composite inscribed (CCI) design was used to design the experiments. The factors considered for the CCI design were pH, LIX 84-I concentration in the membrane phase, flow rate, and acid concentration in the strip solution. A reduced quadratic model was found to fit the experimental data. Detailed analysis of the effect of different factors as well as their interaction on the extraction of copper has been done. The optimized condition for maximum copper flux was found to be pH 4.5, 39.88% LIX 84-I, 360mL/min flow rate, and 7% H2SO4 in strip solution. The highest copper flux of 7.46x10(5)mol/m(2)center dot s was obtained experimentally at the above conditions, which is in good agreement with the predicted value of 7.57x10(5)mol/m(2)center dot s.