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

基本信息

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

项目摘要

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.

在各种重要的高科技应用中，稀土元素（REES）至关重要。 REE的供应链中缺乏多样性，再加上主要采矿的重大环境影响，使REE从次要来源中提取成为有吸引力的替代方法。 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.这项工作的目标是1）量化新出现的二级REE提取过程的材料和能量流及其主要替代方案，2）创建一个框架，比较稀土元素的主要和次要来源的经济和环境绩效，以及3）提出建议，以开发可行的家庭供应链和制造业。生命周期评估，商品市场建模，材料表征和技术经济分析的方法论将合成以评估从副产品中恢复REE的过程，例如煤灰，磷酸化，红泥和电子废物。这项研究的智力优点包括1）建立一个框架和结果，以告知研究和开发从废物产品中恢复REE的过程，2）改进REE中的副产品分配的会计，3）增强方法来解决开发过程的环境/经济评估中的环境/经济评估中的不确定性，以及4）构造waster ope apter of Ree的质量的可变性，包括REE的质量，包括REE的质量，包括REE的质量不同。将采用一种组合情景分析方法，以阐明实现经济可行性和环境利益所需的参数值组合。这项工作的广泛影响包括增强基于美国的制造业并减少绿色技术的环境影响的潜力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估的评估来获得支持的。