Nickel processing

Rhodium occurs native with other platinum metals in river sands of the Urals and in North and South America. It is also found with other platinum metals in the copper-nickel sulfide area of the Sudbury, Ontario region. Although the quantity occurring here is very small, the large tonnages of nickel processed make the recovery commercially feasible. The annual world production of rhodium is only 7 or 8 tons. 

The first process utilizes a bed of nickel catalyst which has been regenerated with hydrogen to reduce the nickel content to metallic form. The finely divided metal then reacts with impurities and retains them in the bed, probably as nickel oxide in the case of oxygen or as physisorbed compounds for other impurities. Periodically, the bed is regenerated at elevated temperature using hydrogen to restore the metallic content. The nickel process can be used and regenerated indefinitely. 

A major advantage of the electroless nickel process is that deposition takes place at an almost uniform rate over surfaces of complex shape. Thus, electroless nickel can readily be applied to internal plating of tubes, valves, containers and other parts having deeply undercut surfaces where nickel coating by electrodeposition would be very difficult and costly. The resistance to corrosion of the coatings and their special mechanical properties also offer advantages in many instances where electrodeposited nickel could be applied without difficulty. 

Gregurek, D., Reimannb, C., Stump, E.F. Trace elements and precious metals in snow samples from the immediate vicinity of nickel processing plants, Kola Peninsula, northwest Russia Environmental Pollution. 102. 1998. 221-232. 

Hydrogenases are not the only nickel-containing enzyme, and researchers must therefore compare the maturation of different nickel proteins to obtain an integrated picture of nickel metabolism. Indeed, similarities between some of the hydrogenase-related nickel-processing proteins with urease and carbon monoxide dehydrogenase maturation factors have been noted, and this has facilitated interpretations of the results for... 

The Raney nickel process applied to alloys of aluminum with other metals produces Raney iron, Raney cobalt, Raney copper and Raney zinc, respectively. These catalysts are used very rarely and for special purposes only. 

The reaction effluent of the rhodium process is subjected to flash distillation under mild conditions in order to maintain the activity of the sensitive catalyst and to contain the costly metal in a limited section of the plant. The effluent of the nickel process is subjected directly to distillation of the products with considerable savings. 

Several economic evaluations of the nickel process as compared with the rhodium process, made by Halcon and by independent consultants, agreed that there is savings of about Iq/lb of acetic acid in favor of the nickel process. The difference is derived essentially from utility savings due to the higher reaction rate, simplified separation and lower water concentration. The nickel process consumes less than half the energy needed for the rhodium-catalyzed process. The catalyst inventory, and the equipment needed for its recovery contribute to the higher cost of production in the rhodium case. 

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In the nickel processes the reducing agent used most commonly is sodium hypophosphite, which gives a deposit comprising a nickel-phosphorus alloy rather than pure nickel the accelerators commonly are fluorides, and thiourea is a typical stabilizer. 

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