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

SBIR第一阶段项目将研究从大量工业废物源（即燃煤飞灰）中提取和回收有价值金属的新方法。如果成功，该项目开发的技术有可能减少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供应负担得起的钪，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的实践的范式转变。废物利用和价值创造技术的验证是一个有吸引力的途径，可以将依赖煤炭的地区转变为基于先进制造业和高科技工作的经济体。以前尝试从工业废物中提取金属，但受到技术限制，本项目开发的技术克服了这些限制。基于商用工程聚合物载体，我们的吸附剂套件在广泛的pH范围内具有稀土选择性功能，能够灵活、互补地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绿色，工业可扩展的化学品，并展示一个整体系统原型，以验证我们工艺的关键单元操作。前者将在我们的商业合作伙伴的监督下通过遵循化学工业的成熟协议来完成，后者将通过广泛的动态子系统测试以及最终的实验室规模原型的构建和操作来完成。项目团队期望该开发工作的最终交付成果能够在技术就绪等级为5的情况下构成对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.