Electrolytic cell for removal of material from a solution

Abstract

An electrolytic cell for the recovery of material as a powder or flakes from a solution, includes a cell cavity for containing the solution, a rotatable electrode in the cavity having a pair of opposite electrode faces, and a counter electrode in spaced and opposing relationship with the respective opposite electrode faces of the rotatable electrode to supply a current through solution in the cavity to permit extraction of the material by electrochemical reaction. A vibrator directs vibrational energy toward the rotatable electrode to dislodge material extracted as a powder or flakes from the solution by an electrochemical reaction.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of copending application Ser. No. 10 / 941,900, filed Sep. 16, 2004, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to an electrochemical method and apparatus for recovering materials from solution by electrowinning or electrooxidization. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The concept on recovering materials from solutions by electrolysis is not new. Many industries, such as plating processes, mining processes and metal finishing, produce waste product of solutions containing ions of metals, and recovery of these metals are both environmentally and economically beneficial. Waste from solutions with unrecovered metal increases the amount of sludge disposed on land-fields. Many systems of metal recovery currently use a mechanical device such as a blade, to remove deposited material from an electrode. The use of a mechanical devi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005] The present invention builds on the success of the invention disclosed in our copending application by improving the throughput. The invention is capabable of either processing a higher volume of material in the same sized cell or alternatively reducing the size of the cell for a given throughput.

[0009] The apparatus can be used for the recovery of metal from either an aqueous or non-aqueous solution, enabling facile separation of electrochemically deposited metal or metallic compounds from an underlying cathode.

[0018] Ultrasonic generators or any other mechanical vibrating device which can be used for the removal of powder, or flakes, can be placed inside the reactor in either a static or dynamic (retractable) manner, facing only the outer or inner face or both faces of the double-face rotatable electrode. When a static arrangement is employed, the double-face rotatable electrode requires at least one device for each face. When a dynamic arrangement is employed, at least one single device can be located toward the inner face only or the outer face only. A sliding mechanism can be used to withdraw it from one face and introduce in front of the other. The thickness of the double-face rotatable electrode can be thin enough to transmit the energetic effect of the vibrating device.

[0024] The present invention makes it possible to substantially reduce, at least by half, the size of the rotatable electrode used and, thus, the size of the electrolytic cell, when both sides of the rotatable electrode are being used. Furthermore, it is also possible to extend the use of both faces of more than one double-face rotatable electrode. Indeed, several disks, or cylinders, can be inserted inside one another, creating an array of electrodes of alternate polarity, turning at different tangential speed and simultaneously working at various current densities.

Problems solved by technology

Waste from solutions with unrecovered metal increases the amount of sludge disposed on land-fields.

The use of a mechanical device has the disadvantages of increased wear, risk of breakage, and tendency to slow the treating process down.

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