Extraction of uranium from acidic solutions with a commercial amine (Alamine-336)

The extraction of uranium from hydrochloric, nitric and sulfuric acid solutions with the technical product Alamine-336 (mainly a mixture of several long-chained tertiary amines) produced by General Mills Co., U.S.A. was investigated. The investigation of the change of distribution coefficients with changes in the acid and amine concentrations lead to the conclusion that under the conditions employed uranium is quantitatively extracted by 6-10% Alamine-336 in Xylol from 6-7M HCl and by 2% Alamine-336 in Xylol from 0.05-0.10 M H2SO4 while for nitric acid solutions an acidity of 4-6 M and an amine concentration of 20-40% is required to obtain the highest distribution coefficient of 2 for uranium. (author)