Low-Temperature Plasma Treatment for Enhanced Recovery of Highly Valued Critical REEs from Coal (Final Technical Report)
The principle objective of this project was to develop a novel process flowsheet using low-temperature plasma treatment (LTP) integrated with conventional hydrometallurgical processes to recover rare earth elements (REEs), especially highly valued REEs (i.e. scandium and critical REEs), from coal and coal byproducts. LTP treatment was used to pretreat the solid feed material prior to leaching in an effort to improve the leaching characteristics of the REEs and potentially reduce acid consumption. Initially, a detailed experimental program was performed on a laboratory LTP furnace to identify a set of process parameter values to be used for assessing the enhanced leaching performance achieved on four specific gravity fractions of West Kentucky No. 13 and Fire Clay coarse coal refuse materials. High-temperature oxidation (HTO)) was also evaluated as a means for improving REE leachability on the same fractions of both coal sources. The lixiviants used to assess leachability improvements included i) untreated water, ii) 0.1 M ammonium sulfate solution and iii) 1.2 M sulfuric acid solution at a temperature of 75°C. The laboratory data was used to develop multiple process flow sheets using HTO only to produce a rare earth oxide mix concentrate or utilizing both LTP and HTO treatment processes to generate a high purity heavy REO mix concentrate and a light REO mix concentrate. A techno-economic analysis was performed on each circuit.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (United States); Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0031525
- OSTI ID:
- 1778177
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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