Dr Chu Yong Cheng is a Research Team Leader at CSIRO Process Science and Engineering.

Dr Chu Yong Cheng: specialising in solvent extraction technologies

Dr Chu Yong Cheng leads research in solvent extraction technologies for metal recovery.

• 10 March 2010 | Updated 21 January 2013

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Chu Yong Cheng is a Research Project Leader and Senior Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Process Science and Engineering and Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship.

He is an internationally recognised researcher and expert with 50 years of experience in minerals processing and hydrometallurgy.

Dr Cheng leads research on developing conventional and synergistic solvent extraction (SSX) technologies to meet the mining industry's needs for the separation, purification and recovery of metals, including rare earths and base metals, in particular, nickel and cobalt.

The SSX research has led to the development of direct solvent extraction (DSX) processes to avoid intermediate precipitation and re-leach steps, so that process flowsheets could be simplified and capital and operating costs reduced.

Dr Cheng's current research interests include:

• synergistic solvent extraction (SSX) technologies
• direct solvent extraction (DSX) process flowsheet
• recycling metal values from spent batteries and catalysts
• nickel laterite process development
• nickel, cobalt, copper and zinc hydrometallurgical processing
• titanium, scandium, niobium and tantalum hydrometallurgical processing
• rare earths separation, recovery and purification
• acid recovery by solvent extraction.

Background

After completing an undergraduate degree in mineral processing in 1968, Dr Cheng worked as a Mineral Processing Engineer in China for 12 years.

He then went on to complete a Masters degree and continued on as a lecturer at what is now known as Central South University in China.

Dr Cheng arrived in Australia in 1984 as a visiting scholar and stayed on to complete his Doctorate in Hydrometallurgy at Monash University, Victoria, Australia.

Dr Cheng held several senior metallurgical teaching and research roles at various organisations before joining CSIRO in 1998.

With 50 years of industrial and academic research experience in minerals processing and hydrometallurgy, Dr Cheng has gained expertise in many areas, including:

• conventional solvent extraction of metals
• synergistic solvent extraction of metals
• recycling metal values from spent batteries and catalysts
• nickel laterite processing
• hydrometallurgical processing of nickel, cobalt, copper, zinc, titanium, niobium and tantalum
• acid recovery from waste and process solutions by solvent extraction.

Academic qualifications

Dr Cheng has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Mineral Processing from the Department of Mineral Processing, Central-South Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (now Central South University), Changsha, China
• Masters of Engineering in Mineral Processing from the Department of Mineral Engineering, Central-South University, Changsha, China
• Doctorate of Philosophy in Hydrometallurgy from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Australia.

Achievements

Dr Cheng has published more than 110 papers; 13 of them were selected in the 'Top 25 hottest papers' of Hydrometallurgy.

He has also been awarded:

• CSIRO Process Science Engineering's Best Paper for Application of Science, 2010, for the papers ‘Recovery of nickel and cobalt from laterite leach solutions using direct solvent extraction: Part 1 – selection of a synergistic SX system' published in Hydrometallurgy, 104(1): 45-52, and 'Recovery of nickel and cobalt from laterite leach solutions using direct solvent extraction: Part 2: Semi- and fully- continuous tests' published in Hydrometallurgy, 104(1): 53-60
• CSIRO Minerals Division’s Best Paper for Application of Science, 2006, for the paper ‘Solvent extraction of nickel and cobalt with synergistic systems consisting of carboxylic acid and aliphatic hydroxyoxime’ published in Hydrometallurgy, 84(1-2): 109-117
• CSIRO Minerals Innovation Award in ‘DSX Processes for Nickel and Cobalt Recovery’, 2004
• CSIRO Minerals Innovation Award in ‘Innovative Solvent Extraction Processes’, 2001.

As an internationally recognised researcher, Dr Cheng has received many honours. Recently he has been invited to be:

• member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Sixth International Hydrometallurgy Conference in China, 2014
• member of International Technical Committee  of the International Solvent Extraction Conference 2011, Santiago, Chile
• guest Professor of Central South University, China, 2009
• co-chairman of the Fifth International Hydrometallurgy Conference in China, 2009
• member of the International Committee of the Fifth International Hydrometallurgy Conference in China, 2009
• session chair in the International Solvent Extraction Conference 2008, Tucson, USA.

Read about CSIRO's capabilities in Precious and base metals hydrometallurgy.