Scale-Up and Commercialization of Rare Earth Separation from Mining Wastes Using Chromatography

Research of chromatographic processing of REE source solutions during Phase I activities provided the foundation for processing REE source materials (acid digestion and caustic bake procedures) and REE separation into high-quality REO materials. The knowledge gained during Phase I will be used to design a larger pilot-scale system capable of processing 100-kg of REE source material per day. Planned activities include operating the pilot-plant for at least 6-months. Additional refinement and troubleshooting of the chromatography process will be completed using the smaller chromatography systems located within the Applicants lab. It is estimated that the work effort expended for in-laboratory work will be less-than that required for pilot operation. Although Phase I operations were successful, much more can be done to optimize the process to be more efficient and cost-effective.   The overarching goal of this project is the successful scale-up of the technology to at minimum TRL 6 developed during Phase I. Also, a specific goal of having the pilot system repeatedly and efficiently produce upwards of 1.5-kg day of high-quality REOs with market defined specification of purity at >85% system efficiency is targeted. This requires not only the design, fabrication and commissioning of a large-scale pilot system, but also significant effort to determine and optimize operational parameters and procedures. To achieve these targets, a back-and-forth flow of technical/operational information will need to occur between the pilot system and experiments being completed in the laboratory.    The proposed project focusses not only on REO production, but also separation into individual REO materials with a portion of project activities planned to explore this possibility. The ability to produce a mixed high-quality REO product and obtain individually separated REOs using chromatography has never been proven at larger scale. This project will validate the process and provide the foundational information necessary to scale the process to large-scale production.