Removal of vanadium from molybdate solution by ion exchange

Due to numerous co-properties in chemistry of molybdenum and vanadium, it is relatively more difficult to remove vanadium from molybdate solution. To produce high-quality ammonium molybdate with the molybdenum materials containing vanadium, the separation of vanadium from the molybdate solution under batch and column mode using ion exchange technique with the strong base resin D296 was studied. In the solution, the pH value was about 7.2, the molybdenum concentration was in the range of 60–80 g/L, vanadium concentration was near 0.6 g/L, chloride ions 20 g/L. The concentration of vanadium (V2O5) was not more than 0.01 g/l in the effluent until effluent/resin volume ratio over 20 at 25 ± 0.5 °C for contact time 60 min and, the average concentration of vanadium (V2O5) was less 0.008 g/L in the effluent collected till the breakthrough point 0.02 g/L V2O5. It was found that the separation can be only performed in the pH range of 6.5–8.5 and, chloride ions have an important influence on the separation as well. When Cl− concentration is increased near 70 g/L, it is impossible to remove vanadium from the solution with the resin. The loaded resin was stripped and regenerated using HCl 6 mol/L, the desorption ratio of vanadium was over 98.5%.