Oil-water Separation & Organic Solvent Recovery for Copper-rich Solution, Katanga, Congo
CUSTOMER
Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A.
LOCATION
Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo
APPLICATION
Removal of oil in copper-rich solution, to recover organic solvent and improve product quality.
DATA
• Flow Rate: 4X270cum/hour
• Inlet Water Characteristic & Outlet Requirement:
Inlet water (mg/L) : oil content (petroleum) 50-100
Outlet water (mg/L): oil ≤10
Suspended solids: 400 ppm,  ≤5 micron
Sulfuric acid: 200 g/l;
working hours: 24 hours/day.
OBJECTIVE OF TREATMENT
• Remove suspended solids and separate oil from copper-rich solution to meet customer’s requirement of no more than 5ppm.
• Recover valuable organic solvent, recycle water and improve product quality of copper.
BACKGROUND & CHALLENGES
TFM holds one of the largest copper and cobalt mine lot in the world, which locates at Katanga Province, southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with annual production capacity of copper about 200,000 tons and cobalt 200,000 tons. As informed by customer, the existing multi-media’s filters working for oil removal for copper-rich solution with conventional technologies could not meet the production requirement, as the oil in high content would accumulate in the electrophoresis tank, greatly affecting the product quality of copper. After being invited for site investigation, LAND ECO has designed and supplied the oil-water separation systems for the subject project with satisfied performance.
LAND ECO SOLUTION
Based on the study result of subject liquid and production process, LAND ECO has designed and supplied the customized system with five streams (four streams working and one standby), consisting of PGOL filters, ESPA filters and GAGS oil-water separators, to remove the SS and separate oil, which perfectly lower the SS and oil content.
IMPACT
• The oil removal is up to 98%, which meets the customer’s requirement of less than 5 ppm.
• Recover valuable organic solvent, and recycle water.
• Improve the quality of copper.
• Large handling capacity to manage different working condition
• Simple operation and low maintenance, with no additional dosage.
• LAND ECO’s oil-water separation systems have been proven to be capable of working in various conditions.