The Focus Area: Chemical Resource Beneficiation and the Technology Transfer and Innovation Support Office of the North-West University (NWU) proudly hosted a Pertraction Metal Refinery Workshop on 11 October 2017.
They did this in collaboration with PX Technologies®, DRA Global, MEMCON, the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and the Advanced Metal Initiative (AMI).
The aim of this event was to convince the mineral processing industries that pertraction (PX) is a viable technology for metal refineries. The NWU wants industrial partners to become involved with the the Industrial Consortium, as part of the commercialisation plan for pertraction technology developed at the university.
This was achieved by presenting the proof-of-purification results in a lab-scale column and the impressive footprint reduction compared to conventional refineries.
Invited guests from the broad hydrometallurgical and mining industry that participated in this event included the Department of Science and Technology Directorate: Mining and Minerals Processing, ERG Africa, D’Aguilar International, Black Swan Holdings, Talis Platinum, Tharisa Minerals, Impala Platinum Refineries, OPAL Mining, Lonmin and Mintek.
The day’s proceedings were divided into two sessions. First on the agenda was an overview of the technology from various perspectives, followed by a plenary discussion where an outline of the demonstration project was presented.
After a lively discussion and a number of valuable recommendations to improve the demonstration project, the success of the workshop was evident from the intention expressed by all industries present to attend the project definition meeting in November.
For more information on pertraction technology, please contact Derik van der Westhuizen, +27(0)835094535 or derik.vanderwesthuizen@nwu.ac.za
The pertraction development plan
Pertraction technology is successfully applied in the recovery of organic compounds and the removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from wastewater, but is yet to be demonstrated within hydrometallurgy.
With this in mind, the NWU has progressed through various steps of the research and development chain since its beginning in 2010. The next phase will entail the demonstration phase that will see the design, installation and operation of a production pertraction module to demonstrate the technology to industry.
The pertraction metal refinery entails a cost-effective new way to add value to South Africa’s many mineral resources. Although the focus will in the first instance be on mineral processing, spin-offs are expected in the environmental, (petro)chemical, pharmaceutical, food and beauty and health sectors.
More about pertraction technology:
Solvent extraction (SX) is one of the major separation and purification unit operations in hydrometallurgy due to the many highly selective solvents that are commercially available. For SX mixer-settlers and extraction columns are the conventional process configurations. More recently, pertraction technology has been introduced at laboratory scale.
Pertraction technology is SX using membrane contactors without mixing both phases. For example, during the extraction step, metals are selectively transferred from the aqueous to the organic phase via the membrane contactor without mixing both phases. In scrubbing or stripping, transfer is – again selectively – done in the reverse direction. The combination of these three steps provides an intensified process for the beneficiation of metals (or other products).
Pertraction technology has a number of innovative advantages over mixer settlers, including process flexibility, design, intensification, economy and reliability, as well as improved product quality control, safety and environmental advantages.
This is a Cobalt-Nickel laboratory pertraction column.
