Rare Earth Elements Rice lab’s flash Joule heating extracts valuable elements from fly ash, bauxite residue, electronic waste
“The U.S. used to mine rare earth elements, but you get a lot of radioactive elements as well,” Tour said. “You’re not allowed to reinject the water, and it has to be disposed of, which is expensive and problematic. On the day the U.S. did away with all rare earth mining, the foreign sources raised their price tenfold.”
Microscopic glass spheres found in coal fly ash contain rare earth elements that could be recycled rather than buried in landfills, according to Rice University scientists. Their flash Joule heating process has been adapted to recover the elements. Tour said treating fly ash by flash Joule heating “breaks the glass that encases these elements and converts REE phosphates to metal oxides that dissolve much more easily.” Industrial processes use a 15-of nitric acid to extract the materials; the Rice process uses a much milder 0.1-molar concentration of hydrochloric acid that still yields more product.
“The strategy is general for various wastes,” Bing said. “We proved that the REE recovery yields were improved from coal fly ash, bauxite residue and electronic wastes by the same activation process.”
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