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

这个SBIR第一阶段项目将研究从丰富的工业废物来源--燃煤飞灰中提取和回收有价值的金属的新方法。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，通过建立负担得起的可靠的长期钪供应，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行业向更可持续做法的范式转变。验证废物利用和创造价值的技术是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。以前从工业废物中提取金属的尝试受到技术限制的影响，该项目开发的技术克服了这一限制。基于商用的工程聚合物载体，我们的吸附剂套件在广泛的pH范围内显示出对稀土元素的选择功能，实现了灵活、互补的部署和较高的试剂回收率。该项目的目标是将我们的新型吸附剂的实验室规模的合成方案转化为更绿色、可工业扩展的化学物质，并展示一个整体系统原型，该系统原型共同验证我们工艺的关键单元操作。前者将通过在我们的商业合作伙伴的监督下遵循化工行业的良好协议来实现，后者将通过广泛的、动态的子系统测试以及最终实验室规模原型的构建和运行来实现。项目团队期望这一开发工作的最终交付成果将构成该过程的高保真演示，其技术准备级别为5。

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.