Separation method
AssigneeCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
InventorsAndrew Chryss, Andreas Monch, Jasbir Khosa, Matthew Richards, David Freeman
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Abstract
A process for recovering metal from a process material comprising the metal and a component that is more volatile than the metal, which process comprises: transporting the process material in a retort provided in a furnace, the retort being operated under vacuum and at a temperature sufficient to cause sublimation of the component from the process material thereby producing purified metal; depositing the component that has been sublimed on a cool surface; removing purified metal from the retort; and removing deposited component from the cool surface.
Claims8
A process for recovering a metal from a process material comprising the metal and at least one component that is more volatile than the metal, which process comprises:
- transporting the process material in a retort provided in a single furnace, the retort being operated under vacuum and at a temperature sufficient to cause sublimation of the at least one component from the process material thereby producing purified metal as a solid, the process material comprising the metal and the at least one component which includes one or more volatile salts of another metal;
- depositing via deposition the at least one component that has been sublimed on a cool surface that is in continuous direct communication with the retort;
- removing the purified metal from the retort;
- and
- removing the at least one component that has been deposited on the cool surface from the cool surface, wherein the process is operated on a continuous basis with fresh process material being supplied to the retort and furnace, with the purified metal being removed continuously and with the at least one component deposited on the cool surface being removed continuously.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.