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Published on: February 21, 2017
Germanium recovery from gasification fly ash: evaluation of end-products obtained by precipitation methods
Fátima Arroyo1, Oriol Font, Constantino Fernández-Pereira
1Escuela Superior de Ingenieros de Sevilla, Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Ambiental, Camino de los Descubrimientos, s/n. Isla de la Cartuja, Seville, Spain. fatimarroyo@esi.us.es
Abstract:
In this study the purity of the germanium end-products obtained by two different precipitation methods carried out on germanium-bearing solutions was evaluated as a last step of a hydrometallurgy process for the recovery of this valuable element from the Puertollano Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) fly ash. Since H(2)S is produced as a by-product in the gas cleaning system of the Puertollano IGCC plant, precipitation of germanium as GeS(2) was tested by sulfiding the Ge-bearing solutions. The technological and hazardous issues that surround H(2)S handling conducted to investigate a novel precipitation procedure: precipitation as an organic complex by adding 1,2-dihydroxy benzene pyrocatechol (CAT) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) to the Ge-bearing solutions. Relatively high purity Ge end-products (90 and 93% hexagonal-GeO(2) purity, respectively) were obtained by precipitating Ge from enriched solutions, as GeS(2) sulfiding the solutions with H(2)S, or as organic complex with CAT/CTAB mixtures and subsequent roasting of the precipitates. Both methods showed high efficiency (>99%) to precipitate selectively Ge using a single precipitation stage from germanium-bearing solutions.
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