Due to the increase in electric and electronic equipment (EEEs), high-purity silver continues to be in high demand. For the past 4 years, silver demand has exceeded silver mining production, but the global supply has nearly met the demand each and every year – thanks to silver recovery and silver refining. Silver recycling will also be critical to meet future demand, especially as we see the general demand of metals increase across the globe, in relation with technological growth. High-purity silver can be produced from silver refining and silver recycling by utilizing a series methods and processes, such as silver electrowinning and electrorefining. I’d like to delve into how these processes are carried out, and the outlook for silver production.

Topics: metal recycling, electrowinning, emew, Refining, metal powders

The electrowinning of copper is an electrolytic process that uses electricity to recover dissolved copper from solution as copper plate, also known as ‘cathode’.

Cu²⁺_(aq) + 2e^- -->Cu_(s)        (E⁰ = +0.34V)

 

Copper easily dissolves in acids including sulphuric, nitric and hydrochloric. Recovering copper cathode from acidic sulphate solutions using electrowinning is a well-known and fairly straightforward process that has been in commercial use since the late 19th century.

Topics: copper, electrowinning, emew, Refinery Optimization

Thanks for joining me today for this discussion on emew advanced liberators. Let's start by looking at a simplified copper refining process flow diagram. Copper Concentrate is fed to the smelting process where fire-refined copper is produced. Next onto anode casting, where 99% anode copper is formed followed by electrorefining of copper to produce LME grade copper cathode. But we aren’t done there, the refinery bleed is then sent to copper liberators to control the copper concentration and impurities in the process. It is at this step, where we will focus our time today.

Topics: electrowinning, mining, emew, Refining, Refinery Optimization

Electrowinning is known as an electrolytic process because it involves electrodes submerged into an electrolyte.An electrolyte is simply a conductive solution formed by dissolving positively and negatively charged ions. 

Topics: electrowinning, emew, Refinery Optimization

Electrowinning is the process of ‘winning’ dissolved metals from solution by passing an electrical current through an electrolyte containing said metal.  The fundamentals of the electrowinning process have been discussed in a previous blog.  The relative ease of recovery depends on the electrochemical potential of the target metal relative to the Standard Hydrogen Electrode (SHE) which is defined by the following reaction:

Topics: electrowinning, nickel, emew, Refinery Optimization

Lab tests such as this are an ideal way to demonstrate the recovery capabilities of emew for a variety of electrolytes and feed materials. In most cases, these tests can be done right at your site so you can see the results for yourself.

This particular test is to demonstrate the recovery of copper cathode from a copper sulphate feed solution.  We can test a range of feed materials to recover not only copper, but also silver, nickel, tin and others.  This copper sulphate solution was prepared ahead of time and roughly 3L transferred to the feed tank.

Topics: copper, electrowinning, emew, General

A common question we get here at emewCorporation is:  “What is the power consumption of emew electrowinning technology”.  This is a very important question because power consumption is one of the most significant costs involved in electrowinning, regardless of whether it is conventional or emew. 

Topics: copper, emew, General