Flowsheets hydrometallurgy

The Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) process involves the electrolysis of aluminum chloride which is carried out in a molten bath of the composition 50% sodium chloride, 45% lithium chloride and 5% aluminum chloride, maintained at 700 °C. The Bayer process, which involves the production of pure alumina by the dissolution of bauxite with caustic soda and which has been described in the chapter on hydrometallurgy, must be taken into account while presenting a complete picture of the aluminum extraction flowsheet. It... 

Nogueira, C. A. Delmas, F. New flowsheet for the recovery of cadmium, cobalt and nickel from spent Ni-Cd batteries by solvent extraction. Hydrometallurgy 1999, 52, 267-287. 

Zhou, J., W. Duan, X. Zhou, and C. Zhang. 2007. Application of Annular Centrifugal Contactors in the Extraction Flowsheet for Producing High Purity Yttrium. Hydrometallurgy 85, 154-162. 

The main methods used for reprocessing of SNF flowsheet were reviewed in a 120 pages report by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA 2012). The three main processes are the so-called hydrometallurgy processes (PUREX and UREX), pyromet-allurgy processes and its variations, and the fluoride volatility process (quite like the method used at the uranium conversion facilities discussed in Chapter 1). The report reviewed in detail several of these processes that are deployed in different facilities for various types of spent fuel (NEA 2012). In this section, we shall try to briefly present an overview of the main points and the analytical aspects. 

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