Recovery of boron from brines with high magnesium content by solvent extraction using aliphatic alcohol
Zhenya Xu, Hui Su, Jian Zhang, Wensen Liu, Zhaowu Zhu, Jinggang Wang, Jing Chen, Tao Qi
Abstract
isodecanol was used for a simulated three-stage counter-current extraction test under optimized extraction conditions, and the boron extraction reached 99.07%. A simulated four-stage counter-current stripping test was carried out with water with the stripping efficiency of 98.71%. In total the boron recovery reached 97.79%. Additionally, the mechanism of boron extraction by isodecanol was investigated using both slope analysis method and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The stoichiometric ratio of isodecanol to boron required to form boric acid ester was found to be 1.268. These results indicate that the extraction system has great potential for commercial application in boron recovery from salt lake brines with high magnesium content.