Abstract
Treatment of secondary/waste to recover rare earth metals (REMs) is gaining importance due to its increasing global demand, lack of availability of high grade natural resources and huge generation of secondaries. Present paper reports the critical review on available processes for recovery of REMs from secondaries viz. manufacturing scraps, e-waste , industrial residues such as red mud , fly ash, waste water , etc. Hydrometallurgical processes with combination of Beneficiation/Pyro-/Electro techniques are discussed to recover REMs effectively. The recommended processes require less energy to deliver high purity yield which is one step towards green environment. Salient findings on various methods are reported with recommendations which will be helpful to researchers working in the area of REMs extraction.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Kumari A, Panda R, Jha MK, Kumar JR, Lee JY (2015) Process development to recover rare earth metals from monazite mineral: a review. Miner Eng 79:102–115
Jha MK, Kumari A, Panda R, Kumar JR, Yoo KK, Lee JY (2016) Review on hydrometallurgical review of rare earth metals. Hydrometallurgy 165:2–26
Kumar JR, Lee JY (2017) Recovery of critical rare earth elements for green energy technologies. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, Rare Metal Technol 19–29
Papangelakis VG, Moldoveanu G (2014) Recovery of rare earth elements from clay minerals. In: 1st European rare earth resources conference, Milos, pp 191–202, 04–07/09/2014
U.S. Geological Survey (2017) Mineral commodity summaries 2017: U.S. Geological Survey, 202 p. doi:http://doi.org/10.3133/70180197
Panayotova M, Panayotov V (2012) Review of methods for the rare earth metals recycling. In: Annual of the University of Mining and Geology “St. Ivan Rilski”, vol 55, pp 142–147
Kumar V, Jha MK, Kumari A, Panda R, Kumar JR, Lee JY (2014) Recovery of rare earth metals (REMs) from primary and secondary resources: a review. Rare Metal Technology, TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), pp 81–88
Zhuang WQ, Fitts JP, Ajo-Franklin CM, Maes S, Alvarez-Cohen L, Hennebel T (2015) Recovery of critical metals using biometallurgy. Curr Opin Biotechnol 33:327–335
Binnemans K, Jones PT, Blanpain B, Van Gerven T, Yang Y, Walton A, Buchert M (2013) Recycling of rare earths: a critical review. J Clean Prod 51:1–22
Akai T (2008) Recycling rare earth elements. AIST Today 29:8–9
Kara H, Chapman A, Crichton T, Willis P, Morley N (2010) Lanthanide resources and alternatives, Department for Transport and Department for Business, Oakdene Hollins Research & Consulting
Peterson ES, Jones E (2014) Improving rare earth reuse and recycling. In: Proceedings of 248th American Chemical Society Meeting, San Francisco
Schüler D, Buchert M, Liu R, Dittrich S, Merz C (2011) Study on rare earths and their recycling. The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, Darmstadt, Öko-Institut
Yang Y, Walton A, Sheridan R, Guth K, Guth R, Gutfleisch O, Buchert M, Steenari B, Gerven TV, Jones PT, Binnemans K (2017) REE recovery from end-of-life Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet scrap: a critical review. J Sustain Metall 3:122–149
Goodier E (2005) The recycling and future selection of permanent magnets and power cores. Presentation at Sweift Levick Magnets
Clenfield J, Shiraki M, (2010) Hitachi develops machine to recycle rare earths to cut reliance on China
Bandara HMD, Darcy JW, Apelian D, Emmert MH (2014) Value analysis of neodymium content in shredder feed: towards enabling the feasibility of rare earth magnet recycling. Environ Sci Technol 48:6553–6560
Yamamura T, Mehmood M, Maekawa H, Sato Y (2004) Electrochemical processing of rare earth and rare metals by using molten salts. Chem Sustain Develop 12:105–111
Shirayama S, Okabe T (2009) Selective extraction of Nd and Dy from rare earth magnet scrap into molten salt. In: Processing materials for properties, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
Ellis TW, Schmidt FA, Jones LL (1994) Methods and opportunities in recycling of rare earth based materials. Metals and materials waste reduction, recovery and remediation (TMS), Warrendale, pp 199–208
Itakura T, Sasai R, Itoh H (2006) Resource recovery from Nd-Fe-B sintered magnet by hydrothermal treatment. J Alloys Compd 408:1382–1385
Xu Y, Chumbley LS, Laabs FC (2000) Liquid metal extraction of Nd from Nd-Fe-B magnet scraps. J Mater Res 15:2296–2304
Lyman JW, Palmer GR (1992) Scrap treatment method for rare earth transition metal alloys. US Patent 5 129:945
Zhang X, Yu D, Guo L (2010) Test study new process on recovering rare earth by electrical reduction-P507 extraction separation method. J Copper Eng 1:1009–3842
Okabe TH, Takeda O, Fukuda K, Umetsu Y (2003) Direct extraction and recovery of neodymium from magnet scrap. Mater Transac 44:798–801
Takeda O, Okabe TH, Umetsu Y (2004) Phase equilibrium of the system Ag-Fe-Nd and Nd extraction from magnet scraps using molten silver. J Alloys Compd 379:305–313
Itoh M, Masuda M, Suzuki S, Machida K (2004) Recycling of rare earth sintered magnets as isotropic bonded magnets by melt-spinning. J Alloys Compd 374:393–396
Kawasaki T, Itoh M, Machida K (2003) Reproduction of Nd-Fe-B sintered magnet scraps using a binary alloy blending technique, Japan. Mater Trans 44(9):1682–1685
Zakotnik M, Harris IR, Wiliams AJ (2009) Multiple recycling of Nd-Fe-B type sintered magnets. J Alloys Compd 469:314–321
Walton A, Han Y, Speight JD, Harris IR, Williams AJ (2012) The use of hydrogen to extract and re-process Nd-Fe-B magnets from electronic waste. In: Proceeding of the 22nd international workshop on rare earth permanent magnets and their applications, Nagasaki, pp 11–13
Sinha MK, Pramanik S, Kumari A, Sahu SK, Prasad LB, Jha MK, Yoo KK, Pandey BD (2017) Recovery of value added products of Sm and Co from waste SmCo magnet by hydrometallurgical route. Sep Pur Tech 179:1–12
Stanton C (2016) Sulfation roasting and leaching of samarium-cobalt magnet swarf for samarium recovery. Masters Thesis, Colorado School of Mines
Binnemans K, Jones PT (2014) Perspectives for the recovery of rare earths from end-of-life fluorescent lamps. J Rare Earths 32(3):195–200
Buchert M, Manhart A, Bleher D, Pingel D (2012) Recycling critical raw materials from waste electronic equipment. Oeko-Institut e.V, Darmstadt, Germany
Ling H, Wen J, Yanwei Y, Weimin S (2017) Study on alkali mechanical activation for recovering rare earth from waste fluorescent lamps. J Rare Earths, In Press
Ippolite NM, Innocenzi V, De Michelis I, Medici F, Veglio F (2017) Rare earth elements recovery from fluorescent lamps: a new thermal pretreatment to improve the efficiency of the hydrometallurgical process. J Clean Prod 153:287–298
Tunsu C, Petranikova M, Ekberg C, Retegan T (2016) A hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of rare earth elements from fluorescent lamp waste fractions. Sep Purif Technol 161(17):172–186
Innocenzi V, Ippolito NM, De Michelis I, Medici F, Veglio F (2016) A hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of terbium from fluorescent lamps: experimental design, optimization of acid leaching process and process analysis. J Environ Manage 184(3):552–559
Dupont D, Binnemans K (2015) Rare-earth recycling using a functionalized ionic liquid for the selective dissolution and revalorization of Y2O3:Eu3+ from lamp phosphor waste. Green Chem 17:856–868
Tan Q, Deng C, Li J (2016) Innovative applications of mechanical activation for rare earth elements recovering: process optimization and mechanism exploration. Sci Rep 6:19961
Yu ZS, Chen MB (1995) Rare earth elements and their applications. Metallurgical Industry Press, Beijing (P.R. China)
Hykawy J (2010) Report on the 6th International rare earths conference, Hong Kong
Hagelüken C, Buchert M, Stahl H (2005) Materials flow of platinum group metals-systems analysis and measures for sustainable optimization of the materials flow of platinum group metals. Umicore Precious Metals Refining and Öko-Institut e. V. ISBN 0-9543293-7-6, GFMS Ltd, London, 2005
Felix N, Vanriet C (1994) Recycling of electronic scrap at UMS Hoboken Smelter. In: Proceedings of the 18th International precious metals conference, Vancouver, Canada, pp 159–169
He H, Meng J (2011) Recycling rare earth from spent FCC catalyst using P507 (HEH/EHP) as extractant. Zhongnan Daxue Xuebao, Ziran Kexueban 42:2651–2657
Vierheilig AA (2012) Methods of recovering rare earth elements. US Patent No. 8,263,028
Muller T, Friedrich B (2006) Development of a recycling process for nickel-metal hydride batteries. J Power Sources 158:1498–1509
Lyman JW, Palmer GR (1995) Hydrometallurgical treatment of nickel-metal hydride battery electrodes. In: Third international symposium on recycling of metals and engineered materials, Alabama (USA), pp 131–144
Zhang PW, Yokoyama T, Itabashi O, Wakui Y, Suzuki TM, Inoue K (1998) Hydrometallurgical process for recovery of metal values from spent nickel metal hydride secondary batteries. Hydrometallurgy 77:116–122
Poscher A, Luidold S, Antrekowitsch H (2011) Aufbereitung von nickel-metalllhydridakkus zur Wiedergewinnung Seltener Erden, pp 419–446
Kaindl M, Luidold S, Poscher A (2012) Recycling of rare earths from nickel-metal hydride batteries with special reference to the acid recovery. Berg-Huetten-maenn. Monatsh 157:20–26
Luidold S, Antrekowitsch H (2012) Recovery of rare earth metals from waste material by leaching in non-oxidizing acid and by precipitating using sulphates. EP 2444507
Kanamori T, Matsuda M, Miyake M (2009) Recovery of rare metal compounds from nickel-metal hydride battery waste and their application to CH4 dry reforming catalyst. J Hazard Mater 169:240–245
Provazi K, Campos BA, Espinosa DCR, Tenorio JAS (2011) Metal separation from mixed types of batteries using selective precipitation and liquid-liquid extraction techniques. Waste Manage 31:59–64
Bertuol DA, Bernardes AM, Tenorio JAS (2009) Spent Ni-MH batteries—the role of selective precipitation in the recovery of valuable metals. J Power Sources 193(2):914–923
Binnemans K, Pontikes Y, Jones PT, Gerven TV, Blanpain B (2013) Recovery of rare earths from industrial waste residues: a concise review. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International slag valorisation symposium, Leuven, Belgium, pp 191–205
Klauber C, Gräfe M, Power G (2011) Bauxite residue issues: II. Options for residue utilization. Hydrometallurgy 108(1):11–32
Borra CR, Pontikes Y, Binnemans K, Gervena TV (2015) Leaching of rare earths from bauxite residue (red mud). Miner Eng 76:20–27
Borra CR, Blanpain B, Pontikes Y, Binnemans K, Gerven TV (2016) Smelting of bauxite residue (red mud) in view of iron and selective rare earths recovery. J Sustain Metall 2:28–37
Fulford GD, Lever G, Sato T (1991) Recovery of rare earth elements from Bayer process red mud. US Patent 5,030,424
Xue A, Chen X, Tang X (2010) The technological study and leaching kinetics of scandium from red mud. Nonferrous Metals Extr Metall 2:51–53
Ochsenkühn-Petropulu M, Lyberopulu T, Ochsenkühn K, Parissakis G (1996) Recovery of lanthanides and yttrium from red mud by selective leaching. Anal Chim Acta 319(1):249–254
Ochsenkühn-Petropoulou M, Hatzilyberis K, Mendrinos L, Salmas C (2002) Pilot-plant investigation of the leaching process for the recovery of scandium from red mud. Ind Eng Chem Res 41(23):5794–5801
Zhang J, Deng Z, Xu T (2005) Experimental investigation on leaching metals from red mud. Light Metals 2:13–15
Wang KQ, Yu YB, Wang H, Chen J (2010) Experimental investigation on leaching scandium from red mud by hydrochloric acid. Chin Rare Earths 1:27
Bray EL (2010) Bauxite and Aluminium. U.S. Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook—2008, U.S. Department of the Interior
Abhilash, Sinha S, Meshram P, Pandey BD, Behera PK, Satpathy BK (2014) Red Mud: a secondary resource for rare earth elements. In: International bauxite, alumina and aluminium symposium, The IBAAS Binder Vol III, Vishakhapatnam, pp 148–162
Kertis M, Yudovich Y (2009) Estimations of clarkes for carbonaceous biolithes: world averages for trace element contents in black shales and coal. Int J Coal Geol 78(2):135–148
Lin R, Howard BH, Roth EA, Bank TL, Granite EJ, Soong Y (2017) Enrichment of rare earth elements from coal and coal by-products by physical separation. Fuel 200:506–520
Dai S, Graham IT, Ward CR (2016) A review of anomalous rare earth elements and yttrium in coal. Int J Coal Geol 159:82–95
Phuoc TX, Wang P, McIntyre D (2016) Detection of rare earth elements in powder river basin sub-bituminous coal ash using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Fuel 163:129–132
Merten D, Bechul G (2004) Determination of rare earth elements in acid mine drainage by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Microchim Acta 148:163–170
Zhao F, Cong Z, Sun H, Ren D (2007) The geochemistry of rare earth elements (REE) in acid mine drainage from the Sitai coal mine, Shanxi Province, North China. Coal Geol 70:184–192
Ziemkiewicz P, He T, Noble A, Liu X (2016) Recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) from coal mine drainage. U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory
Roig MG, Manzano T, Diaz M (1997) Biochemical process for the removal of uranium from acid mine drainage. Water Res 31(8):2073–2083
Fu FL, Wang Q (2011) Removal of heavy metal ions from wastewaters: a review. J Environ Manage 92(3):407–418
Bau M, Dulski P (1996) Anthropogenic origin of positive gadolinium anomalies in river waters. Earth Planet Sci Lett 143(1–4):245–255
Knappe A, Pekdeger A (2005) Positive gadolinium anomaly in surface and ground water of the urban area Berlin, Germany. Chemie der Erde-Geochemistry 65(2):167–189
Rogosnitzky M, Branch S (2016) Gadolinium-based contrast agent toxicity: a review of known and proposed mechanisms. Biometals 29:365–376
Lawrence MG, Keller J, Poussade Y (2010) Removal of magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents through advanced water treatment plants. Water Sci Technol 61(3):685–692
Li C, Zhuang Z, Huang F, Lin Z (2013) Recycling rare earth elements from industrial wastewater with flowerlike nano-Mg(OH)2. App Mater Interfaces 5(19):9719–9725
Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to the Director, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur for the permission to publish this paper. One of the authors, Ms. Archana Kumari would like to extend her sincere gratitude to CSIR, New Delhi (Grant: 31/10(60)/2015-EMR-I) for providing Senior Research Fellowship to carry out this research work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kumari, A., Jha, M.K., Pathak, D.D. (2018). Review on the Processes for the Recovery of Rare Earth Metals (REMs) from Secondary Resources. In: Kim, H., et al. Rare Metal Technology 2018. TMS 2018. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72350-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72350-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72349-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72350-1
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)