Abstract
A method has been developed for the concentration of uranium in seawater by precipitation flotation-carbonate extraction-ion flotation. Uranium in seawater was coprecipitated with hydrated iron (III) oxide by adjusting the pH to 5.5 after addition of 1.0×10-3mol/l of iron (III) and agitating for 1hr, and the precipitate was floated with 1.0×10-5mol/l of sodium oleate and 5.0×10-5mol/l of sodium lauryl sulfate by bubbling nitrogen through the seawater for 15min. Uranium was extracted from the precipitate scum at the yield of 89% with 100ml of 1.8% of ammonium carbonate solution by agitating for 2hr, and floated with 1.2×10-3mol/l of cetylpyridinium chloride by bubbling nitrogen through the extract diluted 5-fold for 30 min in the recovery of about 100%. The fairly selective recovery of uranium was obtained from 4l of seawater at the yield of 87% throughout the entire process.
