Abstract
Desalination techniques have been implemented for years to supply freshwater in some areas. Although it could address water shortage, it would simultaneously produce a high salinity byproduct, brine. Brine as a pollutant would lead to marine, soil, and groundwater pollution when directly disposed into the sea and land. According to the above narrative, it can be observed that another problem is generated when human beings solve the original problem. Under this situation, recovering critical resources from brine is thought to be a method to enhance brine’s value and reduce its disposal. This study then applied the LIX 984N/kerosene system to recover copper from brine. The optimal extraction parameters were pH 9, 0.3 M of LIX 984N, O/A (organic/aqueous) ratio 0.5, extraction time for 3 min, and extraction temperature at 278 K. The result revealed that extraction efficiency was 94.4%. Moreover, H2SO4 was employed to strip copper from the organic phase, and the stripping efficiency was 100%. After the whole process, the copper product and LIX 984N could be generated and reused. In sum, the environmental hazards caused by desalination brine could be minimized, and copper resources were obtained through this study.
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This work was supported by the Laboratory of Resource Circulation in the Department of Resources Engineering, National Cheng-Kung University.
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Conceptualization, C. H. Lee; methodology, C. H. Lee and W. S. Chen; validation, C. H. Lee and J. Y. Wu; formal analysis, C. H. Lee; investigation, C. H. Lee; data curation, W. S. Chen; writing—original draft preparation, C.-H. Lee; writing—review and editing, C. H. Lee and J. Y. Wu; visualization, C.-H. Lee; supervision, W. S. Chen. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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Lee, CH., Chen, WS. & Wu, JY. Pollution Prevention- Recovery of Copper Resource from Desalination Brine through LIX 984N/Kerosene System. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 584 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06604-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06604-1