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Rare metal extraction by chemical engineering techniques
Book Reviews procedures; it is remarkably lucid and painstaking in explanation; it is well provided with worked examples; it is logical in approach and comprehensive in content; in short, it is a successful marriage of scholarship and utility. I look forward to later volumes. J. R. A. PEARX~N
W. D. JAMRACK,Rare Metal Extraction by Chemical Engineering Techniques. Pergamon, Oxford 1963. 70s. THIS book is Volume 2 of a new International Series of Monographs on Chemical Engineering. It is rightly published as part of such a series for it is written from a chemical engineering point of view and it is a detailed discussion of a fairly specialized subject suitable for a monograph. The author has the advantage of extensive practical experience of his subject and has made pertinent original contributions to the literature. What is more significant, perhaps, is the author’s contact with the research and development phases of this subject during a period in which the industrial importance of rare metals increased rapidly. It must have been very difficult to choose a unifying theme
for this monograph. Extraction of uranium, thorium, zirconium, hafnium, titanium, niobium, tantalum, vanadium and beryllium are considered in detail. But only in the last chapter can the reader who is interested in one metal obtain a complete picture of how it may be extracted. In that chapter we find a valuable set of qualitative flowsheets showing the steps required from ore to metal, and I recommend the reader to start with Chapter 9. For detailed information on each step of the process flowsheets we have to refer to the earlier chapters (2-8). Chapter 2 is devoted to orebreakdown by acid, alkali and gaseous attack. Chapters 3 and 4 concentrate upon purifications by ion-exchange .tnd solvent extraction. The middle section of the book deals with “dry” conversions of purified salts to metals. Whilereading this book one is struck by the fact thatnearly all the flowsheets follow the step-by-step chemistry that was used by chemists to make the lirst laboratory samples of the rarer metals. Perhaps in the future we should look for advances which use the more direct routes, with fewer process steps, which are typical of the mature industry of the commoner metals. The photographs are poor, but the many diagrams are very well reproduced. The bibliography is very extensive, and appears to be complete up to 1960. The book is of value to the general student and the specialist. K. D. B. JOHNXIN
BOOKS RECEIVED Modem Developments in Heat Transfer, Edited by WARREN IBELE.Academic Press, New York, 1963. xii+493 pp. $18.00. Design of Equilibrium Stage Processes, Edited by BUFORD D. SMITH*. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1963. xi+647 pp. $17.50. * Chapter 14, Tray Hydraulics: Bubble-cap Trays by William L. Bolles. * Chapter 15, Tray Hydraulics: Perforated Trays by James R. Fair. FATT and TASHIMA: Alkali metal dispersions. 220 pp. Van Nostrand, New York. 220 pp. $7.50. F. D. SNELL and C. T. SNELL: Dictionary of Commercial Chemicals. (3rd Ed.) Van Nostrand, New York, 1962.714 pp. $12.50. F. ALBERTCOON : Chemical Applications of Group Theory. Wiley, New York, 1963. ix+295 pp. $12.50. Materials for Missiles and Spacecraft, Edited by EARL R. PARKER. University of California Engineering and Sciences Extension Series, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1963. xi-442 pp. S15.00.
J. P. HOLMAN: Heat Transfer. 1963. xiv+297 pp. $8.75.
McGraw-Hill,
New York,
E. V. KLEBERand B. LOVE: Technology of Scandium, Yttrium and the Rare Earth Metals. Pergamon, Oxford, 1963.205 pp. 50s. D. B. SPALDING: Convective Mass Transfer, An Introduction. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1963. xv+448 pp. $12.50. C. T. MORTIMER:Reaction Heats and Bond Strengths. Pergamon, Oxford, and Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1963. xii+230 pp. $5.00. THOMASK. SHERWOOD: A Course in Process Design. The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1963. ix+256 pp. $6.00. Chemical Resistant Linings for Pipes and Vessels. E.E.U.A., Handbook No. 6. Published for the Engineering Equipment User’s Association by Constable, 1963. 129 pp. 30s. Thermal Insulation of Pipes and Vessels, E.E.U.A. Handbook No. 12. Published for the Engineering Equipment Users’ Association by Constable, 1963. 92 pp. 30s.
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W. D. JAMRACK,Rare Metal Extraction by Chemical Engineering Techniques. Pergamon, Oxford 1963. 70s. THIS book is Volume 2 of a new International Series of Monographs on Chemical Engineering. It is rightly published as part of such a series for it is written from a chemical engineering point of view and it is a detailed discussion of a fairly specialized subject suitable for a monograph. The author has the advantage of extensive practical experience of his subject and has made pertinent original contributions to the literature. What is more significant, perhaps, is the author’s contact with the research and development phases of this subject during a period in which the industrial importance of rare metals increased rapidly. It must have been very difficult to choose a unifying theme
for this monograph. Extraction of uranium, thorium, zirconium, hafnium, titanium, niobium, tantalum, vanadium and beryllium are considered in detail. But only in the last chapter can the reader who is interested in one metal obtain a complete picture of how it may be extracted. In that chapter we find a valuable set of qualitative flowsheets showing the steps required from ore to metal, and I recommend the reader to start with Chapter 9. For detailed information on each step of the process flowsheets we have to refer to the earlier chapters (2-8). Chapter 2 is devoted to orebreakdown by acid, alkali and gaseous attack. Chapters 3 and 4 concentrate upon purifications by ion-exchange .tnd solvent extraction. The middle section of the book deals with “dry” conversions of purified salts to metals. Whilereading this book one is struck by the fact thatnearly all the flowsheets follow the step-by-step chemistry that was used by chemists to make the lirst laboratory samples of the rarer metals. Perhaps in the future we should look for advances which use the more direct routes, with fewer process steps, which are typical of the mature industry of the commoner metals. The photographs are poor, but the many diagrams are very well reproduced. The bibliography is very extensive, and appears to be complete up to 1960. The book is of value to the general student and the specialist. K. D. B. JOHNXIN
BOOKS RECEIVED Modem Developments in Heat Transfer, Edited by WARREN IBELE.Academic Press, New York, 1963. xii+493 pp. $18.00. Design of Equilibrium Stage Processes, Edited by BUFORD D. SMITH*. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1963. xi+647 pp. $17.50. * Chapter 14, Tray Hydraulics: Bubble-cap Trays by William L. Bolles. * Chapter 15, Tray Hydraulics: Perforated Trays by James R. Fair. FATT and TASHIMA: Alkali metal dispersions. 220 pp. Van Nostrand, New York. 220 pp. $7.50. F. D. SNELL and C. T. SNELL: Dictionary of Commercial Chemicals. (3rd Ed.) Van Nostrand, New York, 1962.714 pp. $12.50. F. ALBERTCOON : Chemical Applications of Group Theory. Wiley, New York, 1963. ix+295 pp. $12.50. Materials for Missiles and Spacecraft, Edited by EARL R. PARKER. University of California Engineering and Sciences Extension Series, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1963. xi-442 pp. S15.00.
J. P. HOLMAN: Heat Transfer. 1963. xiv+297 pp. $8.75.
McGraw-Hill,
New York,
E. V. KLEBERand B. LOVE: Technology of Scandium, Yttrium and the Rare Earth Metals. Pergamon, Oxford, 1963.205 pp. 50s. D. B. SPALDING: Convective Mass Transfer, An Introduction. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1963. xv+448 pp. $12.50. C. T. MORTIMER:Reaction Heats and Bond Strengths. Pergamon, Oxford, and Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1963. xii+230 pp. $5.00. THOMASK. SHERWOOD: A Course in Process Design. The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1963. ix+256 pp. $6.00. Chemical Resistant Linings for Pipes and Vessels. E.E.U.A., Handbook No. 6. Published for the Engineering Equipment User’s Association by Constable, 1963. 129 pp. 30s. Thermal Insulation of Pipes and Vessels, E.E.U.A. Handbook No. 12. Published for the Engineering Equipment Users’ Association by Constable, 1963. 92 pp. 30s.
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