Production and characterization of polystyrene resins containing fine activated carbon particles

Abstract

The development of high capacity adsorbent using engineered activated carbon fines technology, and their ability to extract gold from solution is presented. The unique feature of these adsorbents is their ability to adsorb gold ions from low concentration solutions like mine effluent as well as from leached solutions in gold mills. Production of polystyrene ion exchange resins containing fine activated carbon particles denoted, PSAC, (Polystyrene Activated Carbon) and their gold stripping kinetics were studied. Polystyrene beads were prepared by simple suspension polymerization. However, addition of fine activated carbon (AC) during suspension polymerization was not successful in producing small beads, but rather a conglomerated mass, which was then broken up and shaped into smaller beads. PSAC beads were also produced by co-extrusion of polystyrene with activated carbon and by physical adsorption of activated carbon onto raw polystyrene beads in an autoclave at a temperature above the glass transition temperature of polystyrene. Stripping tests were performed which identified the latter bead type as being the most promising form of PSAC bead for future research. The work was aimed at optimizing the production of the beads in terms of their physical and chemical properties. This work led to the development of a new polystyrene/activated carbon ion exchange bead as an alternative to pure activated carbon. A mini-elution column was also designed to carry out the test work to study the performance of beads and loaded fine carbon stripping parameters under typical industrial conditions. Further development of this research may lead to a new method of stripping loaded fine carbon on mine sites as part of the existing gold milling and extracting circuits.