Investigation on Copper Extraction Using Numerical Simulation

Abstract

Extraction of Cu²⁺ with a kerosene solution of di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) in membrane contactors was studied in this work. Simulations were performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of mass and momentum transfer in all subdomains of a circular membrane contactor. Conservation equations were derived and solved for Cu²⁺ in the membrane contactor. With solving conservation equations, concentration and pressure distributions were obtained for solute. Simulation results showed an extraction efficiency of 85.8 % for Cu²⁺.