Improvements relating to the recovery of uranium by ion-exchange

• Main Author: ARDEN THOMAS VICTOR
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 30.05.1956
• Subjects: CHEMISTRY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; METALLURGY; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS; PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS

Complex uranium anions are recovered from a resin which has been used to take up both uranium and iron as complex anions from solutions, by elution, after treating the resin with dilute sulphuric acid and/or a dilute solution of a neutral metallic sulphate to selectively remove the iron. If a metallic sulphate is used, it is necessary to rinse out any excess before elution of the uranium. The resins used are those containing secondary and/or tertiary amine groups with or without a smaller proportion of quaternary ammonium groups: they may e.g. contain diethylamine, dimethylamine or monoethylamine groups. Suitable sulphates are those of sodium, potassium or magnesium. The process may be performed by passing the solution through the bed in the usual way. In the example, a bed of resin was saturated with a solution containing uranyl sulphate and iron sulphate and eluted firstly with 0.001M H2SO4 and then with a solution containing 0.9M NH4NO3 and 0.1M HNO3. The uranium solution was precipitated with ammonia and ignited at 800 DEG C. to obtain a product containing over 92 per cent. of U3O8. With 0.1M H2SO4 as the washing solution, 99.5 per cent. U3O8 was obtained. Specifications 654,706 and 694,706 [both in Group IV(a)] are referred to.