Disassociation processing of metal oxides

Abstract

The invention relates to systems and processes for recovery and / or extraction of metal values from ore or other raw material containing oxides of the metal and to precipitation of oxides of metals that have oxidation states and / or pollutant loading capacities equal to or greater than that of the metal oxides in the ore or other raw material which are suitable, amongst other uses, as a sorbent for capture and removal of target pollutants from industrial and other gas streams. Further, the invention relates to oxides of metals so recovered and precipitated.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 387,994, filed Jun. 11, 2002, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 342,587, filed Dec. 21, 2001, now U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 328,490, filed Dec. 23, 2002 and International Application No. US02 / 41276, filed Dec. 23, 2002, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 362,477, filed Mar. 6, 2002, now U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 384,473, filed Mar. 6, 2003 and International Application No. US03 / 07098, filed Mar. 6, 2003, which are incorporated by reference herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002] The invention relates to systems and processes for recovery and / or extraction of metal values from ore or other raw material containing oxides of the metal and precipitation of oxides of metals that have oxidation states and / or pollutant loading capacities equal to or greater than that of the metal oxides in the ore or other raw material which are suitable, amongst other uses, as a sorben...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0046] In another embodiment of the invention is a system for rapid and adaptive recovery of metal values as precipitates of oxides of metal having loading capacities and / or oxidation states equal to or greater than that of the metal oxides in the ore or other raw material, the system comprising; a well bore hole for injecting a leaching solution; a well bore hole for recovering a solution containing cations and anions of disassociated metal salts; a precipitation vessel equipped with probes for measuring temperature, Eh and pH values of aqueous solutions within the precipitation vessel, the precipitation vessel being configured for introduction of a solution containing cations and anions of disassociated metal salts; a oxidant feeder containing a supply of aqueous oxidizing solution, the aqueous oxidizing solution being prepared so as to have Eh and pH values within the metal oxide stability area for an aqueous solution heated to a temperature at or near boiling temperature at atmospheric pressure; a heater for providing heat to the precipitation vessel; a base and / or acid feeder for feeding base or acid to the precipitation vessel; a least one filtration and / or rinse unit, which optionally may be incorporated into and a part of the precipitation vessel; and a controller for simultaneously monitoring and adjusting system operational parameters and regulating system components, the controller being in electronic communication with the probes of the precipitation vessel, the feeders, the at least one filtration and / or rinse unit and the heaters; the controller being capable of monitoring and adjusting system operational parameters selected from the group consisting of temperature, Eh, pH and feeder rates so as maintain conditions in the oxidation vessel within the metal oxide stability area through processing cycles.

Problems solved by technology

The most common form of NMD is pyrolusite (.beta.-MnO2), which is inexpensive, but has rather low chemical activity and therefore low pollutant loading capacity.

Though useful as sorbent, characteristics such as low surface area and large compact particle size make EMD somewhat inferior to CMD for gas removal applications, despite its good electrochemical activity.

Oxides of manganese and other metals have the ability to capture target pollutants from gas streams, however, the low pollutant loading rates achieved with various prior art oxides of metals have made some industrial applications of this characteristic uneconomical.

The large quantity of sorbent that would be required to capture NOx and / or SO2 could result in an overly costly pollutant removal system and sorbent regeneration system.

Further, the oxidation state and thus the loading capacity of the oxides of manganese below the surface of the reaction product coating may be reduced during the pollutant removal, thus diminishing the loading capacity of sorbent even after the reaction product have been removed or disassociated into an aqueous solution.

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