solvent extraction of copper from an industrial sulfate liquor using chemorex cp-150

The extraction behavior of cu(ii) ions from a real sulfate liquor obtained from the heap leaching stage of a copper oxide ore was investigated using a chelating reagent, chemorex cp-150 in kerosene. a comparative study was also carried out on the extraction capability of cu(ii) ions using other solvents including d2ehpa and cyanex 272. chemorex cp-150 demonstrated an effective and selective extraction performance of copper with the amount of extracted fe less than 15%. also the results obtained indicated that more than 66.4% and 96.99% of cu were transferred to the organic phase in a single extraction stage using 15% (v/v) chemorex cp-150 at the a:o phase ratios of 1:1 and 1:4, respectively. in addition, the mccabe-thiele diagram exhibited that two extraction stages were required to achieve the maximum amount of cu at a 1:1 phase ratio under the optimal conditions (25 °c, ph 2.5, and 20 min contact time). also, thermodynamic data proved that the extraction process was slightly endothermic (δh = 7.62 kj/mol), indicating the relatively smaller heat effects on the formation of a single complex species (cur2). stripping of copper from the loaded organic phase was also conducted, and it was found that ~99.38% copper could be recovered using 165 g/l h2so4 at a 2:1 a:o phase ratio after 5 minutes stripping.