Seawater as Auxiliary Reagent in Dual-Temperature Ion-Exchange Processing of Acidic Mine Waters

Abstract

This paper reports the results of studying dual-temperature ion-exchange concentrations of Cu2+ from acidic mine waters on acrylic resin Lewatit R 250-K in applying seawater as a regenerant. Application of seawater as an auxiliary reagent has been shown to enhance selective concentration of copper. Loading of the resin in the initial seawater form with mine water at 20 °C followed by thermostripping with hot mine water at 80 °C has been shown to result in an 3-fold increase of copper concentration in the first portions of the eluate. The repetitive thermosorp tion−thermostripping concentration cycles appear to be less efficient and give around 25% increase of Cu2+ concentration. The applicability of seawater for regeneration of the resin in the course of ion-exchange treatment of mine water has been successfully demonstrated, and the flow sheet of a proposed process is presented.