Functionalized Adsorbents for Highly Efficient Germanium Extraction and Separation from Coal Ash Leachates

Critical Minerals are of strategic importance to US National Security and Defense due to their multiple use-cases in military applications. Ge is a rare and versatile critical mineral that is gaining interest within the US military as China continues to monopolize the market.áThere are 106 coal-fired power plants that are associated with coal mines in the Appalachian coal region. Some of the power producers with heavy use of coal from this region are American Electric Power, First Energy, and Dominion. Each of these utilities face significant economic burdens from managing their fly ash. Anactisisĺ novel REE-recovery technology is positioned to alleviate this burden while solving a domestic critical element supply chain issue. And as regulation of these wastes continues to increase, there is also increased pressure to valorize this fly ash.Anactisis in collaboration with Dr Karamalidisĺ Research Lab at Pennsylvania State University are optimizing a novel adsorption technology for the first US soil-based extraction and recovery process of high-purity Germanium (Ge) from coal fly ash leachates. Ge, due to its unique chemistry and current US foreign dependence on adversary states is ideal target ion for military and civilian applications (e.g. additive manufacturing, solar, electronics, and fiber optics). Anactisis will leverage its in-house expertise in Critical Element purification laced with a collaborative effort via Penn Stateĺs already patented Ge purification technology. We aim to design and scale an economically attractive process ready for pilot scale over the course of this quick Phase I. The project aims to advance the technology readiness from TRL 4 to a 5 guiding the advancement with economic models.