Study on removing zinc from nickel electrolyte by ion-exchange

Abstract

In the process of nickel production by diaphragm electrolysis, the quality of the product has been tremendously affected by the content of zinc in the nickel electrolyte. Removing zinc from nickel electrolyte by ion-exchange is studied in the paper. Resin D201 is selected as the resin for zinc removing. Effects of the operative parameters, such as temperature, pH value and the contact time on zinc adsorption are observed and the desorption feature of the zinc-loaded resin is inspected. The results show that macroporous anion-exchange resin D201 has excellent adsorption and desorption properties. Its breakthrough capacity and saturation capacity in zinc adsorption reach 0.81 g/L of zinc and 1.16 g/L of zinc respectively, when the operative temperature is 60 °C and the contact time is only 5 min. In addition, compared with gel type IER 201 × 7 used industrially nowadays, this resin has better wearability and greater intensity.

Keywords

zinc / removal / nickel electrolyte / ion-exchange