Production and setting of fractional elution facility for recovery of useful rare metals from seawater

Seko, Noriaki; Kasai, Noboru; Tamada, Masao; Hasegawa, Shin; Katakai, Akio; Sugo, Takanobu*

In September 1999, we have soaked 200 kg of fibrous amidoxime adsorbents, synthesized by radiation-induced graft polymerization, into seawater to evaluate their performance. Fractional elution facility was set effectively to elute the rare metals on adsorbents in Mutsu-Establishment. This facility consists of two parts of pre-washing and elution. The present report dealt with planning, manufacture and setting of fractional facility. Marine organism and slime on adsorbent cassette (290290160 mm) were washed out and every 72 cassettes were set in elution unit (12101210H1460 mm) with nonwoven materials as a packing to avoid elution loss. In the elution process alkaline and alkaline earth metals were eluted with low concentration hydrochloric acid (0.01M) and rare metals were eluted with high concentration (0.5M) after the packing of elution unit into fractional elution facility.