| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
Materials Science & Technology 2020
|
| Symposium
|
12th International Symposium on Green and Sustainable Technologies for Materials Manufacturing and Processing
|
| Presentation Title |
Microwave-assisted Pretreatment of Coal Fly Ash for Enhanced Recovery of Rare-Earth Elements |
| Author(s) |
Gunes Alp Yakaboylu, Daniel Baker, Katarzyna Sabolsky, John W. Zondlo, Christina Wildfire, Edward M. Sabolsky |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Gunes Alp Yakaboylu |
| Abstract Scope |
Coal fly ash solid waste is a promising source for extraction of the critical rare-earth elements due to increasing demand and need for green and sustainable technologies (e.g. hybrid vehicles, batteries). However, rare-earth elements are mostly isolated within aluminosilicate fly ash particles, which makes their recovery highly limited even using aggressive acid solutions. In this study, a microwave-assisted pretreatment technique was developed as an economic and sustainable approach to improve the enrichment and extraction of the rare-earth elements from coal fly ash. The mixtures of coal fly ash and carbon were pretreated under microwave irradiation at various conditions (e.g. power, time, mode) under argon. Ultra-high heating rates, high temperatures and drastic temperature changes resulted in compositional changes and microstructural defects, which highly enhanced the penetration of acid leaching solutions into aluminosilicate fly ash particles. The leaching efficiency of the total rare-earth elements thereby increased from 21.7 to 54.9-83.4%. |