Rare earth element extraction from secondary sources: understanding environmental impacts and economic feasibility

从二次来源提取稀土元素：了解环境影响和经济可行性

• 批准号: 1804554
• 负责人: Gabrielle Gaustad
• 金额: $ 29.51万
• 依托单位: Rochester Institute of Tech
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-01 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1804554&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Rare; earth; element; extraction; secondary

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential in a variety of important high-tech applications. Lack of diversity in the supply chain for REEs, coupled with significant environmental impacts of primary mining, have made extraction of REEs from secondary sources an attractive alternative. REEs exist in a variety of secondary products, in particular 1) coal combustion products such as fly ash, bottom ash, and incinerator ash, 2) industrial byproducts like slags, dross, phosphogypsum, and red mud, and 3) electronic wastes including nickel-metal hydride batteries, hard drives from laptops and desktop computers, cellular phones, speakers. The objectives of this work are to 1) quantify the material and energy flows of emerging secondary REE extraction processes and their primary alternatives, 2) create a framework to compare economic and environmental performance of primary and secondary sources of rare earth elements, and 3) make recommendations for development of viable domestic supply chains and manufacturing. Methodologies from life-cycle assessment, commodity market modeling, material characterization, and techno-economic analysis will be synthesized to assess processes to recover REEs from byproducts, e.g. coal ash, phosphogypsum, red mud, and electronic waste. The intellectual merit of this research includes 1) establishment of a framework and results to inform research and development for processes to recover REEs from waste products, 2) improved accounting of co-product allocation in REE, 3) enhancing methods to address uncertainty in environmental/economic assessment of developing processes, and 4) addressing variability driven by the quality of the waste, including construction of an open database of REE content of different waste streams. A combinatorial scenario analysis method will be employed that clarifies combinations of parameter values necessary to achieve economic feasibility and environmental benefits. The broader impacts of this work include the potential to enhance U.S.-based manufacturing and reduce environmental impacts of green technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

稀土元素(REE)在各种重要的高科技应用中是必不可少的。稀土供应链缺乏多样性，加上初级采矿对环境的重大影响，使得从二次来源提取稀土成为一种有吸引力的替代方案。稀土存在于各种二次产品中，特别是1)燃煤产品，如飞灰、底灰和焚烧炉灰，2)工业副产品，如矿渣、渣土、磷石膏和赤泥，以及3)电子废物，包括镍金属氢化物电池、笔记本电脑和台式电脑硬盘驱动器、手机、扬声器。这项工作的目标是：1)量化新出现的二次稀土开采过程及其主要替代品的物质和能量流动；2)建立一个框架，比较稀土元素一次和二次来源的经济和环境绩效；3)为发展可行的国内供应链和制造提出建议。将综合生命周期评估、商品市场建模、材料特性和技术经济分析的方法，以评估从副产品(如火山灰、磷石膏、赤泥和电子废物)中回收稀土的过程。这项研究的学术价值包括：1)建立一个框架和结果，为从废物中回收稀土的过程的研究和开发提供信息；2)改进对稀土副产品分配的核算；3)改进方法，以解决开发过程的环境/经济评估中的不确定性；4)解决废物质量引起的可变性问题，包括建立不同废物流的稀土含量的开放数据库。将采用组合情景分析方法，阐明实现经济可行性和环境效益所需的参数值组合。这项工作的更广泛影响包括加强美国制造业的潜力和减少绿色技术对环境的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Estimating increasing diversity and dissipative loss of critical metals in the aluminum automotive sector

• DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.06.016
• 发表时间: 2019-11-01
• 期刊: RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING
• 影响因子: 13.2
• 作者: Arowosola, Ayomipo;Gaustad, Gabrielle
• 通讯作者: Gaustad, Gabrielle

A framework for firm-level critical material supply management and mitigation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.12.008
• 发表时间: 2019-03-01
• 期刊: RESOURCES POLICY
• 影响因子: 10.2
• 作者: Griffin, Gillian;Gaustad, Gabrielle;Badami, Kedar
• 通讯作者: Badami, Kedar

Critical Material Applications and Intensities in Clean Energy Technologies

• DOI: 10.3390/cleantechnol1010012
• 发表时间: 2019-08
• 期刊: Clean Technologies
• 影响因子: 3.8
• 作者: Alexandra Leader;G. Gaustad

The effect of critical material prices on the competitiveness of clean energy technologies

• DOI: 10.1007/s40243-019-0146-z
• 发表时间: 2019-06-01
• 期刊: MATERIALS FOR RENEWABLE AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
• 影响因子: 4.5
• 作者: Leader, Alexandra;Gaustad, Gabrielle;Babbitt, Callie
• 通讯作者: Babbitt, Callie