Water-based Extraction and Concentration of Germanium from Fly Ash

Current germanium supply is dominated by foreign actors who can dictate market price and availability. Due to the importance of germanium in a number of high-end optics and electrics, securing a domestic supply of germanium is critical for national security and continuation of DoD infrared sensor platforms. While germanium is not among the rarest elements in abundance, it is widely distributed in the earths crust, posing a significant challenge to production. Coal gasification ash (Fly ash) is largely regarded as a waste product, with some niche applications in construction or materials research. However, fly ash represents a significant domestic source of germanium that is currently untapped. In this effort, NanoSonic will develop an aqueous approach to the extraction and concentration of germanium from waste fly ash generated in the Appalachian region of the United States. Through use of inexpensive chelating agents, pH change, and solid adsorbents, germanium can be selectively removed from the complex mixture of metals present in fly ash and concentrated for further purification. NanoSonic has the facilities to demonstrate proof-of-concept extraction, as well as pilot scale methods to evaluate scalability of the protocol developed for this approach.