Removal of organic solvents from aqueous process streams
A method for separating organic solvent(s) from an aqueous process stream including organic solvent(s), includes passing the aqueous stream including organic solvent(s) through a granular bed including glass granules, wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 1.0 mm.
1. A method for separating organic solvent(s) from an aqueous process stream comprising organic solvent(s), the method comprising:
passing said aqueous process stream comprising organic solvent(s) through a granular bed comprising glass granules, wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 1.0 mm, and wherein
said aqueous process stream comprises organic solvent(s) is an electrolyte solution resulting from a metal leaching process.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the cross section filtration velocity is from 10 to 80 m/h.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 0.85 mm.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter greater than 0.1 mm.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter greater than 0.2 mm.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 80% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 0.7 mm.
7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 0.6 mm.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter from 0.3 to 0.7 mm.
9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said glass granules are spherical.
10. A method of using glass particles for separating organic solvent(s) from an aqueous process stream comprising organic solvent(s), comprising:
utilizing glass granules wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 1.0 mm, and wherein
the aqueous process stream comprising organic solvent(s) is an electrolyte solution resulting from a metal leaching process.
11. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein at least 90% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter smaller than 0.85 mm.
12. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter greater than 0.2 mm.
13. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein at least 50% of said glass granules have a maximum particle diameter from 0.3 to 0.7 mm.
14. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein said glass granules are spherical.
15. A method for recovering metal(s) from a starting material comprising said metal(s), comprising:
(i) leaching the starting material in a leaching solution to obtain a pregnant leaching solution;
(ii) extracting the metal(s) from the pregnant leaching solution by a extraction solution comprising organic solvent(s) to obtain an organic solution comprising the metal(s);
(iii) stripping metals(s) from the organic solution comprising the metal(s) with an aqueous solution to obtain an electrolyte solution comprising said metal(s);
(iv) removing any remaining organic solvent(s) from the electrolyte solution by the method claimed in claim 1 , to obtain a purified electrolyte solution; and
(v) recovering metal(s) from the purified electrolyte solution.