The first group of ion exchange units designed by the company's Simsley Engineering Company was first put into operation at the Agnew Lake uranium hydrometallurgical plant and later applied at the Warrif South Uranium Plant in South Africa and the major copper production plants in the southwestern United States. The Simsley continuous countercurrent ion exchange system is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Typical arrangement of the Simsley ion exchange system
Equipment structure and operation characteristics:
1. Each exchange room is equipped with a flip-chip, a cap, and an independent liquid inlet system.
Second, the resin transfer mode is unique (see Figure 2). The saturated resin is pressed into the bottom of the rinsing tower through the resin metering chamber. The resin in the rinsing tower rises in a piston shape and does not disturb the bed. The leaching rich liquid is discharged from the bottom of the rinsing tower, which avoids the disadvantage that the uranium concentration which is caused by the rich liquid from the top of the tower is high, and the solution is heavy and gradually diffuses downward, which is not good.
Figure 2 Resin transfer of the Simsley exchange system
Third, the Simsley continuous countercurrent ion exchange equipment truly solves the problem of continuous liquid inlet. Even if the resin is transferred, the solution can be adsorbed as usual around the compartment where the resin is transferred (see Figure 3).
Figure 3 Schematic diagram of resin transfer from chamber C to chamber B
Fourth, the accumulation of fine resin in the upper part of the tower is avoided, thereby improving the ion exchange conditions at the top of the column.
5. Parking and starting are convenient.
6. The annual loss of resin is <5%.
This kind of device has many operation steps per cycle, complicated pipelines, many valves, frequent switches, and whether it can operate normally. It depends largely on whether the programmable controller works normally or reliably. In addition, since the inclined cone and the inverted cymbal and cap structure of each exchange chamber occupy a certain height, the height of the entire adsorption tower is increased.
The Lake Augén Uranium Water and Metallurgical Plant in Canada uses this device to treat underground and surface heap leaching solutions with a uranium concentration of several hundred milligrams per liter. The major copper production plants in the southwestern United States process copper leaching solutions containing several milligrams per liter of uranium. The tower diameter is Φ3.96m and the tower height is 19.85m. South Africa is used to recover uranium from gold -uranium ore leaching, with a uranium concentration of 80-120 mg/L. The tower diameter is 3.66% and the tower height is 16.15m. The uranium in the tailings of the adsorption tower is controlled at about 1mg/L.
The number of compartments of the Simsley continuous ion exchange equipment was determined by testing in series with 8 to 10 columns before design.
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