SBIR Phase I: Rare Earth Element Extraction from End-of-Life Fluorescent Light Bulb Powder

SBIR 第一阶段：从报废荧光灯泡粉中提取稀土元素

• 批准号: 2126763
• 负责人: Vasily Jorjadze
• 金额: $ 25.6万
• 依托单位: IM TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-04-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2126763&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Rare; Earth; Element

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to enable new technologies, such as additive manufacturing and electronics, that require special natural materials known as Rare Earth Elements (REE). Current REE extraction methods produce large quantities of toxic materials requiring mitigation. The proposed solution advances an extraction method that is environmentally friendly and generates no toxic byproducts, can be used with broad material sources (including recycled goods), uses less energy, and is readily scalable to deliver at a significantly lower cost. This SBIR Phase I project proposes a reactor system that incorporates precision ultra-high temperature heating to evaporate targeted material constituents and subsequently condense to separate REEs. The approach optimizes thermal energy to efficiently achieve tailorable temperatures for the extraction and separation of REEs from a broad range of source material, including recycled Fluorescent Light Bulb (FLB) powder that contains significant concentrations of Yttrium, Europium and Terbium. This project will engineer a fully integrated prototype system that ingests waste FLB powder, extracts the REE constituents via precision heating, and then separates them in high purity via controlled evaporation and condensation. Research tasks include development of a reliable calibration procedure that simultaneously sets reactor current, voltage, and temperature for optimal evaporation. The end goal is to demonstrate commercial viability that yields an alternative REE extraction and separation approach that is economically and environmentally superior to existing chemical-based processes.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.

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是实现新技术，如增材制造和电子技术，这些技术需要称为稀土元素（REE）的特殊天然材料。目前的稀土元素提取方法产生大量需要缓解的有毒物质。提出的解决方案提出了一种环保的提取方法，不产生有毒副产品，可以与广泛的材料来源（包括回收物品）一起使用，使用更少的能源，并且易于扩展，以显着降低成本。SBIR一期项目提出了一个反应堆系统，该系统采用精密超高温加热来蒸发目标材料成分，随后冷凝成分离的稀土元素。该方法优化了热能，以有效地从广泛的源材料中提取和分离稀土，包括回收的荧光灯泡（FLB）粉末，其中含有高浓度的钇、铕和铽。该项目将设计一个完全集成的原型系统，该系统摄取废FLB粉末，通过精密加热提取REE成分，然后通过受控蒸发和冷凝分离出高纯度的REE成分。研究任务包括开发一种可靠的校准程序，同时设置反应器电流，电压和最佳蒸发温度。最终目标是证明商业可行性，产生一种替代稀土提取和分离方法，在经济和环境上优于现有的化学方法。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。