Recovery of boron from brines with high magnesium content by solvent extraction using aliphatic alcohol

Abstract

The multi-stage counter-current simulation process showed an extraction system with great potential for commercial application in boron recovery from salt lake brines with high magnesium content.

Boron Extraction by Aliphatic Mono- and Di-Hydroxy Alcohols from a Representative Continental Brine

“…Several authors (Ayers et al, 1981;Bachelier and Verchere, 1995;Grinstead, 1972;Peng et al, 2018;Xu et al, 2021) reported that boric acid is extracted by mono-alcohols or di-hydroxy alcohols from low to high ionic strength aqueous solutions by an esterification reaction. For instance, Fan et al (2018) mentioned that the extraction of boric acid with 2-ethyl-1,3-hexanediol occurs according to the following esterification reaction:…”

“…Many papers investigated solid/liquid extraction (adsorption, ion exchange resin (Guan et al, 2016;Gazi and Bicak, 2007)), (electro)membrane operation (electrodialysis, reverse osmosis (Melnik et al, 1999;Farhat et al, 2013)), chemical precipitation (Shih et al, 2014) and liquid-liquid extraction (Bicak et al, 2005;Joshi et al, 2012;Karakaplan et al, 2004;Brooks et al, 2018) to recover boron from various aqueous solutions including wastewater and brines (Kim et al, 2023). Electrodialysis, ion exchange resins and chemical precipitation are not highly selective towards boron (Xu et al, 2021;Peng et al, 2021). Adsorption requires many stages and consumes an important amount of fresh water (Bonin et al, 2021).…”

“…Aliphatic alcohols can be classified into two groups including mono-hydroxy alcohols and di-hydroxy alcohols. From brine concentrated by evaporation, Xu et al (2021) (Xu et al, 2021) studied the extraction properties of boron by mono-hydroxy alcohols including n-decanol, n-octanol, isooctanol, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 2-octanol, 3,5,5-trimethyl-1-hexanol, isodecanol, 2-propyl-1-heptanol and isotridecanol diluted in sulfonated kerosene. The highest boron extraction efficiency (99%) was obtained with 3 stages at a phase volume ratio O/A = 1 by contacting the brine concentrated by evaporation from the East Taijinar Salt Lake (pH adjusted to 3.5) with an organic phase containing 2.5 mol L − 1 isodecanol diluted in sulfonated kerosene.…”

Liquid–liquid extraction of boron from continental brines by 2-butyl-1-octanol diluted in kerosene

“…[17][18][19][20] Among them, liquid-liquid extraction is the most used technology in hydrometallurgy for the recovery of many metals including boron. 21,22 Alcohols [23][24][25] diluted in kerosene, 12 toluene, 26 chloroform, 19,25 benzene 27 or sulfonated kerosene 23,24,28,29 were extensively reported in the literature as extractants to recover boron from brines.…”

A promising modified polyvinyl chloride for adsorption of boron: Preparation, adsorption kinetics, isotherm, and thermodynamic studies

“…This suggests that a pH buffer is required to prevent ester hydrolysis in an acidic environment. It is common practice to classify boron extraction agents as either mono‐hydroxy alcohols (2‐butyl‐1‐n‐octanol), 22–24 di‐hydroxy alcohols (diols), 25,26 or phenols 27 . Alcohols with 8–12 carbon atoms, such as 2‐ethyl‐1,3‐hexanediol (EHD), 28 2‐butyl‐2‐ethyl‐1,3‐propanediol (BEPD), 29,30 and 2,2,4‐trimethyl‐1,3‐pentanediol, 31 have been shown to have excellent boron extraction efficiencies. …”