SBIR Phase I: Sustainable scandium supply from industrial wastes enabled by novel chemistry in solid-phase extraction technologies

该SBIR一期项目将研究从丰富的工业废物来源（即燃煤飞灰）中提取和回收有价金属的新方法。如果成功，该项目开发的技术有可能降低新产生的和遗留的燃煤废物的环境和社会风险，同时加强对先进技术和绿色能源应用至关重要的原材料的供应链安全。此外，通过建立一个安全的、长期的、负担得起的钪供应，该项目可以促进商业和个人交通的长期改善。这种高选择性、无溶剂的金属分离技术的示范也可能影响冶金工业向更可持续实践的范式转变。验证废物利用和创造价值的技术是使依赖煤炭的地区向以先进制造业和高科技工作为基础的经济转型的一个有吸引力的途径。以往从工业废料中提取金属的尝试都受到技术限制，而本项目开发的技术克服了这些限制。基于商业上可用的工程聚合物支撑，我们的吸附剂套件在广泛的pH范围内表现出ree选择性功能，实现灵活，互补部署和高试剂回收率。该项目的目标是将我们的新型吸附剂的实验室规模合成方案转化为更环保，工业可扩展的化学品，并展示一个整体系统原型，验证我们过程的关键单元操作。前者将在我们的商业合作伙伴的监督下，遵循化工行业成熟的协议来完成，后者将通过广泛的、动态的子系统测试，并最终构建和运行实验室规模的原型。项目团队期望该开发工作的最终可交付成果在技术准备级别5上构成该过程的高保真演示。

This SBIR Phase I project will study novel methods for extracting and recovering valuable metals from an abundant industrial waste source, namely coal combustion fly ash. If successful, the technology developed in this project has the potential to reduce the environmental and societal risks of both newly generated- and legacy coal combustion wastes, while strengthening the supply chain security of raw materials critical to advanced technology and green energy applications. Moreover, by establishing a secure long-term supply of affordable scandium, this project can catalyze long-lasting improvements in commercial and personal transportation. Demonstration of this highly-selective, solvent-free metal separations technology may also influence a paradigm shift in the metallurgical industry towards more sustainable practices. Validation of technologies for waste utilization and value creation is an attractive avenue for transitioning coal-dependent regions towards economies based on advanced manufacturing and high-tech jobs.Previous attempts to extract metals from industrial wastes have suffered from technical limitations that the technology developed in this project overcomes. Based on commercially-available engineered polymer supports, our suite of adsorbents exhibits REE-selective functionality across broad pH regimes, enabling flexible, complementary deployment and high rates of reagent recycle. The goals of this project are to translate the laboratory-scale synthesis schemes for our novel adsorbents to greener, industrially-scalable chemistries and to demonstrate a holistic system prototype that validates the key unit operations of our process together. The former will be accomplished by following well-established protocols of the chemical industry under the supervision of our commercial partner and the latter through extensive, dynamic subsystem testing and finally construction and operation of a lab-scale prototype. The project team expects the final deliverable of this development effort to constitute a high-fidelity demonstration of the process at a Technology Readiness Level of 5.