US 5,045,209 AGranted

Method for chromatographically recovering scandium and yttrium

AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.

InventorsThomas S. Snyder, Richard A. Stoltz

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Abstract

Scandium and yttrium present in sand is recovered from the residue pulled from sand chlorinators. The residue is digested with an acid to produce a liquid containing scandium, yttrium, sodium, calcium and at least one radioactive metal of the group consisting of radium, thorium and uranium. The metal-containing liquid is then fed through a cation exchanger. The cation exchanger is eluted with an acid to produce eluate functions containing at least partially separated metals. A first eluate fraction contains at least half of the calcium and the sodium, a second eluate fraction contains at least half of the radioactive metals, a third eluate fraction contains at least half of the scandium and a fourth eluate fraction contains at least half of the yttrium which were contained in the metal-containing feed.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A method for chromatographically recovering scandium and yttrium from the residue of a sand chlorinator, comprising the steps of:

providing a residue from a sand chlorinator, the residue containing scandium, yttrium, sodium, calcium and at least one radioactive metal of the group consisting of radium, thorium and uranium;
digesting the residue with an acid to produce an aqueous liquid containing scandium, yttrium, sodium, calcium and at least one radioactive metal of the group consisting of radium, thorium and uranium;
feeding the metal containing liquid through a cation exchanger;
eluting the cation exchanger with an acid eluant to produce:
a first eluate containing at least half of the total weight of the calcium and sodium in the feed liquid;
a second eluate containing at least half of the total weight of the one or more radioactive metals in the feed liquid;
a third eluate containing at least half of the yttrium in the feed liquid, and
a fourth eluate containing at least half of the weight of the scandium in the feed liquid.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.