Gold Recovery Process from Primary and Secondary Resources Using Bioadsorbents

Abstract

Bioadsorbents were prepared in a simple manner only by treating in boiling concentrated sulfuric acid from various biomass materials such as various polysaccharides, persimmon tannin, cotton, paper and biomass wastes such as orange juice residue and microalgae residue after extracting biofuel. These bioadsorbents exhibited high selectivity only to gold over other metals and extraordinary high loading capacity for gold(III), which were elucidated to be attributable to the selective reduction of gold(III) ion to elemental gold due to its highest oxidation-reduction potential of gold(III) of metal ions, catalyzed by the surface of bioadsorbents prepared in boiling sulfuric acid. By using these biosorbents, recovery of gold from actual samples of printed circuit boards of spent mobile phones and Mongolian gold ore was investigated. Recovery of trace concentration of gold(I) from simulated spent alkaline cyanide solution was also investigated using the bioadsorbent. Application of bioadsorbents to some recovery processes of gold from cyanide solutions was proposed.