"The Bureau of Mines investigated the feasibility of numerically modeling the sorption of cobalt, a vulnerable strategic and critical metal, from spent copper leach solutions in a multiple-compartment ion-exchange (MCIX) column. Equilibrium resin loadings, cobalt- sorption kinetics, and resin-fluidization characteristics were determined in simple laboratory tests, and a numerical model was developed to predict cobalt extraction and the MCIX-column resin inventory based upon the test results. The model was implemented on a microcomputer to approximate the solution to the set of differential equations that govern model performance. Results compared very well with data from 12 pilot-scale MCIX-column experiments. The average difference between predicted and actual cobalt extractions was 3.2 pct; the maximum difference was 9.3 pct. The actual and predicted resin inventories differed by an average of 5.8 pct, and the maximum difference was 12.0 pct." - NIOSHTIC-2 NIOSHTIC no. 10005870

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health