Anodic Dissolution of Used Nickel-Base Superalloy U-500 in Sulfate Media for Recycling of Ni, Co and Cr

U-500 is a nickel-based superalloy which has significant amounts of some precious elements such as cobalt and chromium. Due to the economic and strategic value of these metals, their recovery from the used superalloys is of great importance. Hydrometallurgy is an economical and effective method for recovering these valuable metals from the superalloy scraps. So in this investigation, the dissolution behavior of nickel, cobalt and chromium elements from the used U-500 superalloy in the electro leaching process as well as the effect of different process parameters (such as: sulfuric acid concentration, applied voltage, process temperature, stirring and cathode-anode distance) on the dissolution of these elements are studied in details. The results show clearly that by increasing the concentration of sulfuric acid in the electrolyte, the applied voltage, and temperature, as well as decreasing the cathode-anode distance, the anodic dissolution of the superalloy U-500 is improved. Electrolyte stirring has no significant effect on increasing the anodic dissolution of the superalloy. The optimum conditions for the anodic dissolution of superalloy U-500 in sulfuric acid electrolyte was determined as acid concentration of 125 g/L, applied voltage of 4 V, stirring speed of 300 rpm, and cathode-anode distance of 3 cm without temperature control (starting with ambient temperature as the initial temperature(. Under these conditions, about 75% nickel, 84% cobalt and 67% chromium were durnig 25 minutes.