Cobalt from nickel, across one pH unit
A laterite leach liquor contacted counter-currently with D2EHPA in kerosene, then the loaded organic stripped and returned.
The actual dark-mode canvas: leach liquor contacted counter-currently with a D2EHPA organic phase that loads cobalt and leaves nickel in the raffinate, then the loaded organic stripped with acid and returned.
A separation that lives on one pH unit
Extraction releases protons, so the distribution coefficient is a steep function of pH — and cobalt's half-extraction pH sits only about one unit below nickel's. The circuit is run in that gap, which is why pH control is the operating variable and why a 20-stage cascade is solved here rather than a single equilibrium contact.
Unit ops shipped for this vertical
Counter-current liquid-liquid contacting — extract and raffinate from a real stage cascade.
Stream circuit pH, organic-to-aqueous ratio and raffinate assays from the plant's OPC-UA server into this flowsheet's twin comparison — this separation lives inside a narrow pH band, so a drift of a tenth of a unit is a real cobalt loss.
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- ✓20-stage counter-current circuit solved as a cascade
- ✓Runs inside the real ~1 pH-unit separation window
- ✓Extraction and stripping on one connected flowsheet