• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.26-35
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• 2019

This study aims to introduce and economical review on the possibilities of rare earth elements(REEs) recovery from coal ashes and the analysis of economical evaluation factors based on the data for securing domestic rare earth elements. The cut-off grade of REEs on recovering from coal ash was confirmed to be 1,000 ppm on total rare earth oxides(TREO) basis, and while the economic value of coal ash changed with contents and specific elements of rare earth elements. This shall be resulted in the price differences of rare earth elements required by the current industry, and it probably varies depending on the future demand of rare earth components. For developing of commercial recovery technology on REEs in coal ashes, many researches have been carried out by various analyzing methods, such as evaluation of holding value of REEs in ashes, assessment between supply and demand of industry, comparison of investment and its profitability for the REEs's production from coal ashes, and so on. Although these methods have been suggested, its recovery system with economical feasibility could not been confirmed up to present. In this reason, the process design of recovering REEs from coal ash shall be researched continuously to solve the problems of the global rare earth market. And also these researches shall be conducted actively in Korea for the purpose of securing the REEs resources and their recovering technologies.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.3-14
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• 2020

This study aims to introduce and review on the recovery technologies of rare earth elements(REEs) from coal ash. Many researchers have been carried out by various beneficiation processes, such as particle size separation, magnetic separation, specific gravity, and flotation to recover rare earth elements from coal ash generated from Pulverized Coal(PC) boiler. Through the beneficiation process, it was confirmed that concentration of rare earth elements was much lower than the 4,700 ppm, and that additional enrichment treatment through wet process was needed for the products recovered after the beneficiation process. It was confirmed that the rare earth elements contained in coal ash were applied to the leaching process after pretreatment such as alkali-fusion to improve leaching efficiency. Although beneficiation and leaching methods have been studied, its optimum recovery technologies for rare earth elements not been confirmed up to now, research on the recovery of rare earth contained in coal ash is reported to continue. In case of Korea, the technology for the recovery of rare earth elements from coal ash and coal by-product could not been confirmed up to present. In these reasons, it is urgent to develop technologies such as beneficiation and leaching process continuously.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.18-25
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• 2019

In order to recover the cerium contained in the spent nickel metal hydride batteries (NiMH battery), the recovered rare earth complex precipitates from NIMH were converted into rare earth hydroxides through ion exchange reaction to react with NaOH aqueous solution at a reaction temperature of 70 ℃, for 4 hours. Rare earth hydroxides were oxidized by injecting air at 80 ℃ for 4 hours to oxidize Ce³⁺ to Ce⁴⁺. The oxidation rate of cerium was confirmed to be about 25 % through XPS, and the oxidized powder was separated from the rest of the rare earth using the difference in solubility in dilute sulfuric acid. The finally recovered powder has a crystal phase of cerium hydroxide (Ce(OH)₄). The cerium purity of the final product was about 94.6 %, and the recovery rate was 97.3 %.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.303-309
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• 2010

For the pyrochemical process of spent nuclear fuels, recovery of LiCl-KCl eutectic salts is needed to reduce radioactive waste volume and to recycle resource materials. This paper is about recovery of residual LiCl-KCl eutectic salts in radioactive rare earth precipitates (rare earth oxychlorides or oxides) by using a vacuum distillation process. In the vacuum distillation test apparatus, the salts in the rare earth precipitates were vaporized and were separated effectively. The separated salts were deposited in three positions of the vacuum distillation test apparatus or were collected in the filter and it is difficult to recover them. To resolve the problem, a vacuum distillation and condensation system, which is subjected to the force of a temperature gradient at a reduced pressure, was developed. In a preliminary test of the vacuum distillation/condensation recovery system, it was confirmed that it was possible to condense the vaporized salts only in the salt collector and to recover the condensed salts from the salt collector easily.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 2018

For the recovering rare earths in the spent nickel-metal hydride batteries, 10 M NaOH is added to the solution leached with sulfuric acid. The rare earth powders were precipitated at rate of 98 % at the condition of pH 2.0 or less. The recovered rare earth complex precipitate increased the leaching rate to nitric acid by heat treatment at $800^{\circ}C$ for 4 hours. Subsequently secondary precipitation was performed by adding oxalic acid to the solution in which the rare earth complex precipitate was dissolved. The re-precipitated rare earth powders were converted into oxide form through heat treatment at $800^{\circ}C$ for 4 hours with purity of 99.5 %.

• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2022

Nd-Fe-B waste permanent magnet contains about 20~30% rare earth elements and about 60~70% iron elements, and the rare earth and iron components were recovered through sulfuric acid leaching and fractional crystallization. Oxidation roasting was not performed for separation and recover of the rare earth and iron elements. The leaching characteristics were confirmed by using as variables the sulfuric acid concentration and the mineral solution concentration ratio. Sulfuric acid leaching was carried out for 3 hours for each sulfuric acid concentration. The leached solid phase was characterized for its crystalline phase, composition, and quantitative components by XRD and XRF analysis, and the filtrate was analyzed for components by ICP analysis. With sulfuric acid leaching at 3M sulfuric acid concentration, neodymium compounds were formed, the iron content was the least, and the recovery rate was high. After the filtrate remaining after sulfuric acid leaching was subjected to fractional crystallization through evaporation and concentration, the neodymium component was found to be concentrated 7.0 times and the iron component 2.8 times. In this study, the recovery rate of waste permanent magnets through sulfuric acid leaching and a fractional crystallization method without an oxidation and roasting process was confirmed to be about 99.4%.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2018

In order to industrially recycle nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements included in waste NiMH batteries, electrode powder scraps were recovered by dismantle, crushing and classification from automobile waste battery module. As a result of leaching recovered electrode powder scrap with sulfuric acid solution, 99% of nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements were leached under reaction conditions of 1.0 M sulfuric acid solution, pulp density 25 g/L and reaction temperature $90^{\circ}C$ for 4 hours. In addition, the rare earth elements were able to separate from nickel / cobalt solution as cerium, lanthanum and neodymium precipitated under pH 2.0 using 10 M NaOH.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.14 no.6 s.68
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• pp.3-9
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• 2005

In this study, the separation and recovery of cerium hydroxide was investigated from the wasted cerium polishing powders. Waste cerium polishing powder contains $64.5\;wt\%$ of rare earth oxide and the content of cerium oxide is $36.5\;wt\%$. Since cerium oxide, $56.3\%$ of rare earths, is the most stable state in rare earth, the dissolution of cerium oxide in acid solution is not easy. Therefore the process of rare earth oxide by sulfation and water leaching was examined in order to increase the recovery of rare earth. Rare earth elements were recovered in the form of $\Re{\cdot}Na(SO_{4})_{2}$ by the addition of sodium sulfate to leached solution. The slurry of rare earth hydroxide was prepared by the addition of $\Re{\cdot}Na(SO_{4})_{2}$ to sodium hydroxide solution. After the oxidation of cerous hydroxide($CE(OH)_{3}$) to ceric hydroxide($CE(OH)_{3}$) by aeration, ceric hydroxide was separated from other rare earth hydroxides by controlling the acidity of solution.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.68-75
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• 2018

The rare earth elements (REE) contents in coal ashes generated from domestic circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) were identified for evaluating the exploitation possibilities for recovering rare earth elements. Total REE contents for all of the samples in this study ranged from 82.2 ~ 311.7 ppm, much lower than the 403.5 ppm given on the average value of world coal ash. As a result of analysis using REE concentration and Outlook coefficient, six types of coal ashes falls in the unpromising area (I). These results suggest that it is difficult to recover rare earth element from coal ashes at this stage. It has been confirmed that to recover rare earth elements in coal ashes, research on the pretreatment and concentration process for critical REE is requirement.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.8-15
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• 2018

Solvent extraction behavior of light rare earth elements (Pr, Nd) and medium rare erath elements (Tb, Dy) in the HCl-PC88A-kerosene extraction system was investigated in order to separate high-purity light rare earths (Pr, Nd) and medium rare earths (Tb, Dy) in the mixed rare earth chloride solution. In the batch test step, it was confirmed that the separation efficiency was good when the extractant concentration (PC88A) was 0.5 M, the equilibrium pH after extraction was 0.8 to 1.0 (initial pH 1.3 of the feed), the concentrations of hydrochloric acid in scrubbing solution was set as 0.1 M, the concentrations of hydrochloric acid in stripping solution was set as 2.0 M or more. Based on the experimental data obtained from the batch test, the mixer-settler was composed as follows; 4 stages of extraction, 8 stages of scrubbing, 4 stages of stripping, and 3 stages of pickling organic solution. The Mixer-settler was operated for 180 hours, and the operating conditions were continuously adjusted to obtain the high-purity light/medium rare earths. Finally, the purity of light (Pr, Nd) and medium rare earth elements (Tb, Dy) was reached as 3 N class.