Recovery of Zinc by LIX 984N-C from Electroplating Rinse Bath Solution

Abstract

The development of a complete solvent extraction process at the laboratory scale for recovering zinc from the zinc electroplating first rinse bath solution (alkali solution) containing 1.9g/L zinc (ZEFRBS) by a solvent extraction route using LIX 984N-C, which is a new SX reagent developed by Cognis, and dissolved in commercial kerosene was investigated. By using LIX 984N-C, an electrolyte from ZEFRBS with 12g/L zinc content, which was addable to the alkali zinc electroplating bath, was generated by 10 vol.% LIX 984N-C in commercial kerosene at the O/A ratio of 1/4 and equilibrium pH value of 8.00 +/- 0.05 with a two-stage countercurrent extraction, and stripping of the loaded organic by a strip solution with 150g/L sulfuric acid and with the O/A ratio of 1.5 at a two-stage countercurrent stripping process. A new complete flow sheet of 10 vol.% LIX 984N-C process for the recovery of zinc from ZEFRBS has been demonstrated.