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.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是启用新技术，例如增材制造和电子产品，这些技术需要特殊的天然材料，称为稀土元素（REE）。当前的REE提取方法会产生大量需要缓解的有毒材料。拟议的解决方案推进了一种对环境友好且无毒副产品的提取方法，可以与广泛的材料来源（包括回收商品）一起使用，使用较少的能量，并且可以易于扩展以较低的成本交付。 该SBIR I期项目提出了一个反应器系统，该系统结合了精确的超高温度加热，以蒸发靶向材料成分，然后将其凝结至分开的REE。 该方法优化了热能，以有效地达到可定制的温度，从而从广泛的原始材料中提取和分离REE，包括可回收的荧光灯灯泡（FLB）粉末，其中包含大量浓度的Yttrium，Europium和Terbium。该项目将设计一个完全集成的原型系统，该系统摄入废物FLB粉末，通过精确加热提取REE成分，然后通过受控的蒸发和凝结将它们高度分离。 研究任务包括开发可靠的校准程序，该程序同时设置反应堆电流，电压和温度以进行最佳蒸发。 最终目标是展示商业生存能力，该可行性产生了一种替代性的REE提取和分离方法，在经济和环境上在环境上优于现有的基于化学的过程。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影响的审查标准来评估的。