2017-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2017 Volume 7. Recycling, Secondary Batteries and Environmental Protection
| Editors: | Kongoli F, Aifantis K, Kumar V, Pagnanelli F, Kozlov P, Xueyi G |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2017 |
| Pages: | 205 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-987820-73-7 |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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Separation of REEs from Fluorescent Lamp Waste Fractions
Teodora Retegan1; Cristian Tunsu1;1CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, Gothenburg, Sweden;
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 69
Topic: 7
Abstract:
Separation of REEs from fluorescent lamp waste has been a very successful project financed by Formas and Energimyndigheten between 2010-2014, aimed at recycling of Rare Earth Metals (REMs) from low energy lamps after Hg decontamination step. The project has been carried-out in close collaboration with an industrial partner (Nordic Recycling AB), CIT (Chalmers Industritechnik) and IVL (Swedish Environmental Research Institute).
A hydrometallurgical process was developed, comprising a leaching step for mercury (using iodine solutions) and subsequent selective leaching of remaining components. The hydrometallurgical decontamination process can be viewed as a simpler and possibly cheaper alternative to the energy intensive thermal treatment for reducing mercury levels in heavily contaminated samples. Cyanex 923 in kerosene allows the separation of REEs from other elements, leading to significantly better results compared to other extraction systems e.g. TBP. Separation of a REEs concentrate was achieved using mixer settlers. From here, the stream can be further processed for further separation using e.g. more selective extractants or a larger number of extraction stages. In December 2014, the project has reached the laboratory pilot stage.
Due to the success of the project, the industrial partner together with other 3 SMEs (MEAB, MRT and CIT) and Chalmers group have decided on scaling-up the project and installing a pilot plat at the industrial partner’s site. The whole process makes the subject of this work.