Copper removal from lead

Crude lead contains traces of a number of metals. The desilvering of lead is considered later under silver (Chapter 14). Other metallic impurities are removed by remelting under controlled conditions when arsenic and antimony form a scum of lead(II) arsenate and antimonate on the surface while copper forms an infusible alloy which also takes up any sulphur, and also appears on the surface. The removal of bismuth, a valuable by-product, from lead is accomplished by making the crude lead the anode in an electrolytic bath consisting of a solution of lead in fluorosilicic acid. Gelatin is added so that a smooth coherent deposit of lead is obtained on the pure lead cathode when the current is passed. The impurities here (i.e. all other metals) form a sludge in the electrolytic bath and are not deposited on the cathode. 

Precipita.tlon, In the simplest case, the solubihty of an impurity in the Hquid metal changes with temperature. Thus the impurity may precipitate as a sohd phase upon cooling. For instance, the removal of iron from tin and of copper from lead are achieved by precipitation. When the soHd is lighter than the Hquid, it floats as a dross on the surface of the melt where it is easily removed by scraping. The process is called dressing. 

Metals less noble than copper, such as iron, nickel, and lead, dissolve from the anode. The lead precipitates as lead sulfate in the slimes. Other impurities such as arsenic, antimony, and bismuth remain partiy as insoluble compounds in the slimes and partiy as soluble complexes in the electrolyte. Precious metals, such as gold and silver, remain as metals in the anode slimes. The bulk of the slimes consist of particles of copper falling from the anode, and insoluble sulfides, selenides, or teUurides. These slimes are processed further for the recovery of the various constituents. Metals less noble than copper do not deposit but accumulate in solution. This requires periodic purification of the electrolyte to remove nickel sulfate, arsenic, and other impurities. 

Betts Electrolytic Process. The Betts process starts with lead bullion, which may carry tin, silver, gold, bismuth, copper, antimony, arsenic, selenium, teUurium, and other impurities, but should contain at least 90% lead (6,7). If more than 0.01% tin is present, it is usually removed from the bullion first by means of a tin-drossing operation (see Tin AND TIN ALLOYS, detinning). The lead bullion is cast as plates or anodes, and numerous anodes are set in parallel in each electrolytic ceU. Between the anodes, thin sheets of pure lead are hung from conductor bars to form the cathodes. Several ceUs are connected in series. 

The carbon monoxide purity from the Cosorb process is very high because physically absorbed gases are removed from the solution prior to the low pressure stripping column. Furthermore, there is no potential for oxidation of absorbed carbon monoxide as ia the copper—Hquor process. These two factors lead to the production of very high purity carbon monoxide, 99+ %. Feed impurities exit with the hydrogen-rich tail gas therefore, the purity of this coproduct hydrogen stream depends on the impurity level ia the feed gas. 

The most efficient processes in Table I are for steel and alumintim, mainly because these metals are produced in large amounts, and much technological development has been lavished on them. Magnesium and titanium require chloride intermediates, decreasing their efficiencies of production lead, copper, and nickel require extra processing to remove unwanted impurities. Sulfide ores produce sulfur dioxide (SO2), a pollutant, which must be removed from smokestack gases. For example, in copper production the removal of SO, and its conversion to sulfuric acid adds up to 8(10) JA g of additional process energy consumption. In aluminum production disposal of waste ciyolite must be controlled because of possible fiuoride contamination. 

The major electrochemical reaction at the anode surface is oxygen and chlorine evolution coupled with oxidation of the active carbon to carbon dioxide. Eventually all the carbon is removed from the anode coating and this allows perforation of the copper conductor leading to ultimate anode failure. 

The soft S2 donor sets presented by these bidentate ligands lead to very strong binding of heavy metals (Table 7) which are not stripped by sulfuric acid, ensuring that these deleterious elements do not transfer to the Zn electrolyte.196 However, co-extraction of copper is accompanied by reduction to Cu1 which has proved very difficult to strip to regenerate the reagent and will lead to poisoning of the extractant unless all traces of copper are removed from the feed solution. 

Brittania A process for removing silver from lead, operated by Brittania Refined Metals in England, using ore from the Mount Isa mine in Australia. After initial concentration by the Parkes process, and removal of the zinc by vacuum distillation, the mixture, which contains silver (70 percent), lead, and some copper is treated in a bottom blown oxygen cupel in which lead and copper are removed by the injection of oxygen through a shielded lance. 

The Lewis ENVIRO-CLEAN process removes and recovers metals such as chromium, copper, nickel, mercury, lead, zinc, iron, and cadmium and has effectively demonstrated that it can treat a matrix of multiple metals in a single stream with positive results. The process treats wastes from wood preserving, metal finishing, mining, surface and groundwaters. The two-step process uses granular-activated carbon and electrolytic metal recovery to yield a salable metallic by-product. 

V to IX), the copper complexes of the imidazoles also precipitated from the reaction mixture, and were filtered off. Oxalic acid and 4(5)-imidazole (30) were determined in the filtrate.11 40,41 The complex was suspended in hot water,11,29 32-40,41,43 47 50 53,88 dilute sulfuric acid,48,49 or dilute hydrochloric acid,44 the copper was removed as the sulfide, with hydrogen sulfide or sodium sulfide,49 and the excess of hydrogen sulfide was removed with lead acetate.11 40 41,50 The clear... 

The method adopted for removing the antimony, tin, copper, sine, and other foreign matters, is often tedious and expensive. It Is founded upon the oxidation of those metals, and the separation of the dross of mixed oxides from the lead. To effect this, the smelted metal is to-melted in a levciberatery furnace, through which a Copious draught is Instituted, and allowed to remain In this state, the scum of oxide being removed from time to time till the most part of the easily oxidised impurities are separated. 

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