Uranium extraction plant, uranium recovery, and acid or base recovery
AssigneePaladin Intellectual Property Pty Ltd
InventorsPaul Boshoff, Merrill Ford, Shana McDougall, Mark Peacock
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is apparatus for recovering an acid or a base during a uranium extraction process. The apparatus contacts contacting a feed stream comprising the acid or base and the uranium with an ultrafiltration membrane to produce an ultrafiltration retentate and an ultrafiltration permeate, and contacting the ultrafiltration permeate with a nanofiltration membrane. The nanofiltration retentate produced comprises a majority of the uranium from the feed stream, and the nanofiltration permeate produced comprises a majority of the acid or base from the feed stream.
Claims10
A uranium extraction plant comprising a uranium extraction system and a recovery apparatus, said uranium extraction plant comprising a uranium loaded feed stream from said uranium extraction system directed to said recovery apparatus, said feed stream comprising sulphuric acid or a base selected from sodium carbonate and/or sodium bicarbonate, and optionally sodium hydroxide, and dissolved uranium compound, and said recovery apparatus recovering said sulphuric acid or said base, and said dissolved uranium compound, wherein said recovery apparatus comprises:
- a solids removal stage to extract detrimental solids from the feed stream;
- a cross-flow configuration ultrafiltration membrane plant configured to receive the feed stream and to produce an ultrafiltration retentate and an ultrafiltration permeate;
- and
- A nanofiltration membrane plant configured in a tapered array into which the ultrafiltration permeate is received to produce a concentrated nanofiltration retentate comprising a majority of the dissolved uranium compound from the feed stream, and a nanofiltration permeate comprising a majority of the sulphuric acid or base from the feed stream;
- wherein the ultrafiltration permeate is received by the nanofiltation membrane plant directly from a nanofiltration feed tank, wherein the nanofiltration feed tank receives the ultrafiltration permeate directly from the ultrafiltration membrane plant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.