CRITICAL STUDY OF SCANDIUM EXTRACTION FROM NICKEL LATERITE ORE

• Main Author: Rizki Josua Sitorus, Indrawan
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Metalurgi
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/51371
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Scandium (Sc) is a light rare earth metal and has high melting point, therefore it is potentially applicable for alloying element in high-temperature lightweight materials. Scandium is widely developed for aluminium-scandium alloy (Al-Sc) and material for electrolyte of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC). However, the utilization of scandium is commercially still limited because of its very expensive price. This very expensive price of scandium is caused by the scarcity of the scandium raw materials and the production cost of scandium which is still relatively high. There have been some studies discussing about extraction and recovery process of scandium from various raw materials, but a comprehensive study of scandium extraction from nickel laterite ore is still limited. In this thesis, a critical study of the scandium extraction process from nickel laterite ore from the literature published in the last 20 years is conducted. Studies on the scandium extraction process from nickel laterite ore have been carried out on scientific literature from textbooks, papers from scientific journals, papers in international conference proceedings, published project feasibility studies reports and several other sources. The extraction process studied included high pressure acid leaching (HPAL), scandium precipitation, re-leaching, and scandium recovery. The recovery methods reviewed include solvent extraction, adsorption with ion exchange resins, solvent impregnated resin (SIR), and liquid membranes. Based on the results of the study obtained, it is suggested further researches that needs to be carried out on the scandium extraction process from laterite nickel ore for obtaining a better result. Scandium is found at higher concentrations in limonite type of laterite nickel ore. With a high iron content and relatively low nickel, the HPAL Process was chosen to extract scandium together with nickel and cobalt. Furthermore, to obtain a scandium-rich solution, precipitation is carried out in two stages, where the first step is carried out to precipitate as much iron as possible and the second stage is carried out to precipitate the remaining dissolved iron and scandium. The scandium-rich precipitates generated from the second stage of precipitation are re-leached and then the scandium recovery stage is carried out. There have been several recovery methods developed, namely solvent extraction using D2EHPA/ BP, Primene JMT, Cyanex 272/Cyanex 923 and HTTA/TOPO synergistic systems, adsorption methods with conventional ion exchange resins using Amberlite IRC 747 and Lewatit TP 260, adsorption with solvent impregnated resin using TP 272, [D201] [DEHP], Purolite-Aminocarbonylmethylglycine, and [Amberlite XAD-7HP] [PC88A & Versatic 10], and liquid membrane recovery methods using PIM (Polymer Inclusion Membrane) -D2EHAF.