Recovery of Tellurium from Waste Anode Slime Containing High Copper and High Tellurium of Copper Refineries

Chinmaya Kumar Sarangi, Abdul Rauf Sheik, Barsha Marandi, Vijetha Ponnam, Malay Kumar Ghosh, Kali Sanjay, Manickam Minakshi () and Tondepu Subbaiah ()
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Chinmaya Kumar Sarangi: CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751013, India
Abdul Rauf Sheik: CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751013, India
Barsha Marandi: CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751013, India
Vijetha Ponnam: Vignan’s Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Guntur 522213, India
Malay Kumar Ghosh: CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751013, India
Kali Sanjay: CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751013, India
Manickam Minakshi: College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
Tondepu Subbaiah: Vignan’s Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Guntur 522213, India

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-10

Abstract: Tellurium is used in cadmium tellurium-based solar cells. Mercury cadmium telluride is used as a sensing material for thermal imaging devices. High-purity tellurium is used in alloys for electronic applications. It is one of the important raw materials for solar energy applications. It is used as an alloying element in the production of low-carbon steel and copper alloys. Tellurium catalysts are used chiefly for the oxidation of organic compounds and as vulcanizing/accelerating agents in the processing of rubber compounds. Even though several researchers tried to recover tellurium from different raw materials, there is no attempt to develop a process flow sheet to recover tellurium from waste anode slime having a high tellurium concentration. In this study, optimum conditions were developed to recover Te and Cu from anode slime with the composition Cu: 31.8%, Te: 24.7%, and As: 0.96%. The unit operations involved are leaching, purification, and electro winning. The optimum conditions for producing Te at a recovery of 90% are found to be roasting of anode slime at 450 °C without the addition of soda ash followed by leaching in 1 M NaOH at 10% pulp density for 2 h. The purity of Te metal achieved was up to 99.99%, which could provide a sustainable energy future. The major impurities of the tellurium are observed to be in the order: Se > Sb > As > Cu.

Keywords: tellurium; leaching; electro-winning; recovery; purity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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