K-Technologies
K-Technologies

Technical Application

Some specific areas for which K-Tech has developed unique process technology applications through bench, pilot plant, and/or commercial experience. More detailed descriptions of most of these technologies are contained in the Process Application page of this website.
test tubes

1. Phosphate Related Applications

  1. Uranium recovery from phosphoric acid with advanced extraction techniques such as impregnated substrates (IS) and/or ion exchange (IX).
  2. Uranium recovery from phosphoric acid via up-dated conventional solvent extraction (SX) approaches.
  3. Impurity removal (e.g. iron, aluminum, magnesium, cadmium) from wet process phosphoric acid using ion exchange or other modified extraction techniques.
  4. Recovery and purification of rare earths and metals such as yttrium, vanadium and cadmium from wet process phosphoric acid using ion exchange and continuous chromatographic techniques.
  5. Fluoride recovery from phosphogypsum pond water or barometric cooling water systems with ion exchange techniques, with subsequent conversion of recovered silicofluoride solutions into industrial fluoride and silica products.
  6. Production of technical grade and water soluble phosphate salts such as completely water soluble MAP from wet process phosphoric acid with modified precipitation techniques.
  7. Production of thiosulfate materials using continuous reactor systems and an intermediate solution via ion exchange.
  8. Production of N-P-K polyphosphate solutions using advanced ion exchange methods for minimized raw materials cost.

Potassium Related Applications

  1. Production of potassium salts via ion exchange processes including potassium sulfate; potassium phosphates; potassium carbonate; and potassium nitrate.
  2. Production of potassium hydroxide using a modified ion exchange technique to allow for lower cost feedstocks and non-electrolytic production techniques.
  3. Production of potassium thiosulfate from an intermediate potassium chemical that is produced directly from potassium chloride by advanced ion exchange methodologies.
  4. Production of potassium polyphosphate and ammonium-potassium polyphosphate compounds using ammonium polyphosphate and potassium chloride (or sulfate) feedstocks with co-product ammonium chloride or ammonium sulfate.

3. Other Applications

  1. Recovery and purification of tantalum oxide from specific tantalum/niobium sources via ion-exchange techniques.
  2. Recovery of manganese sulfate from waste sulfate leach streams in silver mining operations via ion-exchange.
  3. Recovery of alumina and other materials (e.g. uranium) from coal fly ash wastes.
    d. Recovery and purification of rare earths from both conventional and non-conventional feedstocks, i.e. production of individual rare earth components such as neodymium oxide; gadolinium oxide; and the like.
  4. Recovery and purification of higher-end strategic materials, e.g. cobalt, zirconium/hafnium; precious metals; etc., where the basic recovery and purification techniques require a more sophisticated separation approach to produce specification product.
  5. Treatment of various by-product or waste solutions to remove unwanted materials and allow for water discharge or alternatively recovery of the impurity (as a recycled material) along with a cleaned recycle aqueous phase.
  6. Removal of hardness from fracking well water and seawater by continuous ion-exchange techniques to make the former reusable for drilling applications, and the latter for more efficient desalination.
  7. Separation of biologically derived materials via continuous ion chromatography.

4. Patent Status

The company currently has patent applications underway for six different phosphate related technologies:

  1. Uranium extraction from phosphoric acid (dual cycle).
  2. Uranium extraction from phosphoric acid (single cycle).
  3. Minor element ratio (MER) reduction in phosphoric acid.
  4. Rare earths recovery from phosphoric acid and subsequent separation of individual rare earth components.
  5. Fluoride and silica recovery from phosphoric acid operations.
  6. Ammonium/potassium polyphosphate compounds from potassium chloride and phosphoric acid.

The company has one potassium related patent that has been issued, i.e. US 5,449,506, Process for Producing Potassium Carbonate.
The company intends to pursue patent applications for several other of its technologies.