Journal article
Rare earth elements from waste
Science advances, Vol.8(6), abm3132
02/11/2022
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm3132
PMCID: PMC8827657
PMID: 35138886
Abstract
Rare earth elements (REEs) are critical materials in electronics and clean technologies. With the diminishing of easily accessible minerals for mining, the REE recovery from waste is an alternative toward a circular economy. Present methods for REE recovery suffer from lengthy purifications, low extractability, and high wastewater streams. Here, we report an ultrafast electrothermal process (~3000°C, ~1 s) based on flash Joule heating (FJH) for activating wastes to improve REE extractability. FJH thermally degrades or reduces the hard-to-dissolve REE species to components with high thermodynamic solubility, leading to ~2× increase in leachability and high recovery yields using diluted acid (e.g., 0.1 M HCl). The activation strategy is feasible for various wastes including coal fly ash, bauxite residue, and electronic waste. The rapid FJH process is energy-efficient with a low electrical energy consumption of 600 kWh ton
−1
. The potential for this route to be rapidly scaled is outlined.
The ultrafast flash Joule heating process greatly increases the recovery yield of rare earth elements from industrial wastes.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Rare earth elements from waste
- Creators
- Bing Deng - Rice UniversityXin Wang - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USADuy Xuan Luong - Rice UniversityRobert A. Carter - Rice UniversityZhe Wang - University of Iowa, Chemical and Biochemical EngineeringMason B. Tomson - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USAJames M. Tour - Rice University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Science advances, Vol.8(6), abm3132
- DOI
- 10.1126/sciadv.abm3132
- PMID
- 35138886
- PMCID
- PMC8827657
- ISSN
- 2375-2548
- eISSN
- 2375-2548
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 02/11/2022
- Academic Unit
- Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984696147202771
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