Ammtec

Purity Systems Inc. (PSI)

Purity Systems Inc. is a company that was formed to produce and commercialize innovative chelating ion exchange resins, initially developed through, and in association with, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT USA.

Resin research and development is conducted by the Department of Chemistry, The University of Montana.

Resin production quality control approval is conducted at the Purity Systems Inc laboratories located within the Montana Technology Enterpirse Center, Missoula USA (pictured below).

Resin client application testing, if required,is conducted either at the Montana laboratory or, alternatively, at the Perth, Australia, metallurgical testing laboratories of Ammtec Limited (photo below)

Ammtec Limited, at their Australian laboratories or at the client site, can conduct worldwide bankable piloting, for client applications, as required.

Bankable ion exchange pilot runs may be integrated with either up-stream equipment suppliers, such as leaching circuits, membranes and the like or downstream value metals recovery circuits such as precipitation, electro-winning, EMEW ®, electroplating, crystallization or evaporation etc, if required by the client. The client, for presentation to financial institutions in support of the project funding application, may use the Ammtec Limited test report, on any such piloting. Alternatively, the client may conduct their own resin evaluation and testing.

Technology Overview

Purity Systems Inc. are manufacturers of ion exchange resin products that are different and superior, in many applications, to the styrene and similar resins manufactured by the large multi-national resin producers.

The PSI patented technology is built around silica-polyamine composite materials that offer unique advantages as a scaffolding building base to attach varied metal ion removal materials in order to achieve selectivity for the target metals.

The polymer coating on the silica base material itself offers many advantages in the liquid-liquid extraction process such as:

Polyamines are water soluble making the particle surface more hydrophilic then the surface of resin-based materials.

The water solubility of the polymer is important from an environmental standpoint as it negates the use of highly toxic organic solvents in reactions involving the polymer. Many of the ligand addition reactions carried out to date have been done in water, methyl alcohol or a mixture of the two. Another critical environmental factor is that these materials can be used to extract the metal atoms, ions and complexes directly from aqueous media without first extracting them out into a highly toxic, often flammable organic phase first, such as done in solvent extraction. The use of water-soluble polymers allows for faster capture kinetics and the integrated chelating agents are a result of the ease of modification of the basic composite material.

Polyamines contain chelating binding agents as an integral part of their structure.

The polyamines used to synthesize PSI products are high in amine nitrogen's. These nitrogen's are incorporated into the polymer through the chemically robust carbon - nitrogen bonds that have the ability to withstand the conditions likely encountered during most metal extraction processes. The sheer density of the nitrogen atoms coupled with the conformational freedom afforded through their incorporation into a water soluble polymer makes this arrangement particularly effective at removing contaminant metals from aqueous solutions.

These chelating agents additionally offer sites for facile addition of ligands - molecules that can fine-tune the metal selectivity of the ion exchange resin.

The robust carbon - nitrogen bonding is essential in impacting the physical stability of the material. This stability is entirely dependent on the nature of the chemical bonds holding the material together, and it is this allows PSI the flexibility to modify and customize ligand substituents for special applications.

CuWRAM®

CuWRAM® is a selective resin designed for copper recovery from low process liquor pH while rejecting ferric iron.

Requires no regeneration with base: cycles are load, wash, elute, rinse and then back to load
May be eluted with concentrated sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids
Metal recovery by EW or, alternatively, as the Sulphate, nitrate or chloride chemical
Elute copper purity typically >99 percent
Separations Cu2+/Fe3+ of >1000 (process liquor pH dependent)
Zero resin shrink or swell
Operating pH range of 0.3 to 5
Operating process liquor temperature of up to 110C
Exceptional physical stability
Exceptional product lifetimes with <10% loss of loading capacity when tested over 3000 cycles with no physical degradation being observed
Shipped with <10% moisture content
Resin performance, in a mixed metals matrix, may vary according to the composition and tenors of the liquor being treated together with the pH and the actual process conditions under which the resin will be used. We recommend testing on the actual process liquor in order to assess resin suitability for the client application

WP-1®

WP-1® is a resin designed for general transition metals processing applications and differs from the remainder of the Purity Systems Inc. product range in that it requires replacement of OH - ions on the resin by regeneration with ammonia solution.

The resin, as is common with all of the Purity Systems Inc. range, is centered on the rejection of sodium, potassium and calcium +2 ions.

May be eluted with concentrated sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids
Metal recovery by EW or, alternatively, as the Sulphate, nitrate or chloride chemical
Zero resin shrink or swell
Nominal operating pH range of 3 to 10
Separation of Pd from transition metals at pH 0 to 1
Operating process liquor temperature of up to 110C
Exceptional physical stability
Exceptional product lifetimes with <10% loss of loading capacity when tested over 3000 cycles with no physical degradation being observed
Shipped with <10% moisture content

The WP-1® resin will load Cu +2, Ni +2, Co +2, Zn +2, Fe +2, Fe +3, Mn +2 and Al +3 from process liquors in the pH range of 3 to 10 and is especially effective where dissolved chelators, such as EDTA, are present in the feed liquor.

Separation of the loaded metals may be possible, depending on the client objectives, to enable many environmental clean-up projects to be cash flow positive through the recovery and sale of high purity value metals.

Resin performance and selectivity, in a mixed metals matrix, may vary according to the composition and tenors of the liquor being treated together with the pH and the actual process conditions under which the resin will be used. We recommend testing on the actual process liquor in order to assess resin suitability for the client application.

Long Resin Lifetimes:

IRC-718 is marketed under the name Amberlite®. Amberlite® is the registered trademark of Rohm and Haas.

Ramsden resins, (US patent 4,540,486), are marketed by J. T. Baker, a division of Mallinckrodt Baker Inc.

WP-2®

WP-2® is a resin designed for metals removal applications from acidic process liquors.

The resin, as is common with all of the Purity Systems Inc. range, is centered on the rejection of sodium, potassium and calcium +2 ions.

Requires no regeneration with base: cycles are load, wash, elute, rinse and then back to load
May be eluted with concentrated sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids
Metal recovery by EW or, alternatively, as the Sulphate, nitrate or chloride chemical
Zero resin shrink or swell
Nominal operating pH range of 1 to 10
Operating process liquor temperature of up to 110C
Exceptional physical stability
Exceptional product lifetimes with <10% loss of loading capacity when tested over 3000 cycles with no physical degradation being observed
Shipped with <10% moisture content

The resin has similar elemental selectivity as WP-1® and is ideally suited for treatment of many mining process liquors, for example bacterial heap leach liquors, and aggressive process streams such as those found in pickling waste processes and similar acidic environments.

Additional resins are under development, or in the process of further assessment to see if they may have a commercial future, and will be released on the market as available.

Purity Systems Inc, in conjunction with Ammtec Limited, offer a complete and comprehensive ion exchange service. From bench and integrated piloting through to optional supply of complete ion exchange systems. Process guarantees may be negotiated.

With laboratories and research facilities in Missoula, USA, sales offices in New York, agents in Australia, Chile and Japan PSI are ideally located to service the needs of our clients worldwide.