System and method for producing metal powder by electrowinning
AssigneePhelps Dodge Corporation
InventorsScot P Sandoval, Antonioni C Stevens, Timothy G Robinson, John O Marsden, Stanley R Gilbert
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Abstract
This invention relates to a system and method for producing a metal powder product using either conventional electrowinning or alternative anode reaction chemistries in a flow-through electrowinning cell. The present invention enables the production of high quality metal powders, including copper powder, from metal-containing solutions using conventional electrowinning processes, direct electrowinning, or alternative anode reaction chemistries.
Claims13
A process for producing copper powder by electrowinning comprising the steps of:
- introducing a copper-containing solution into a flow-through electrowinning cell;
- electrowinning copper powder from said copper-containing solution to produce a slurry stream containing copper powder particles and electrolyte;
- wherein said step of electrowinning copper powder comprises oxidizing ferrous iron at an anode to form ferric iron and forming copper powder at a cathode.
A process for producing copper powder by electrowinning consisting essentially of:
- introducing a copper-containing solution into a flow-through electrowinning cell;
- electrowinning copper powder from a copper-containing solution to produce a slurry stream containing copper powder particles and electrolyte, wherein said step of electrowinning copper powder comprises oxidizing ferrous iron at an anode to form ferric iron and forming copper powder at a cathode;
- optionally, separating at least a portion of the electrolyte from the copper powder particles in the slurry stream;
- optionally, separating at least a portion of the coarse copper powder particles in said slurry stream from at least a portion of the fine copper powder particles in said slurry stream in a size classification stage;
- conditioning at least a portion of said slurry stream;
- optionally, separating at least a portion of the bulk liquid from the copper powder particles in said slurry stream;
- optionally, drying at least a portion of the copper powder particles originally present in the slurry stream to produce a copper powder product;
- and
- optionally, subjecting said copper powder product to at least one of size classification, packaging, direct forming, casting, briquetting, extrusion or melting.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.