Kinetics study on leaching of rare earth and aluminum from polishing powder waste using hydrochloric acid

In this study,a novel hydrometallurgical process consisting of hydrochloric acid three-stage countercurrent leaching and solvent extraction was proposed to recover rare earth oxide(REO)from the rare earth polishing powder waste(REPPW).The effects of HCl concentration,liquid-solid ratio(L/S ratio),temperature and time on the leaching yields of rare earths(in REO)and aluminum(in Al2O3)were studied.The result shows that the leaching yields of REO and Al2O3 are 90.96%and 43.89%respectively under the optimum leaching parameters of HCl concentration=8.00 mol/L,L/S ratio=4 mL/g,leaching temperature=353 K and leaching time=180 min.Meanwhile,the leaching kinetics of REO and Al2O3 were investigated in this study.The leaching behaviors of REO and Al2O3 follow a shrinking sphere/core model and the general leaching process is controlled by the surface chemical reaction.The leaching activation energies of REO and Al2O3 are 9.86 and 13.68 kJ/mol,respectively.The leaching yield of each substance in three-stage countercurrent leaching is improved substantially compared with single-stage leaching,with a change from 90.96%to 95.38%for REO and from 43.89%to 46.22%for Al2O3,respectively.Especially,the total concentration of REO in three-stage countercurrent leaching solution is greatly increased to above 300 g/L,and the acidity of which is decreased to ca.pH=2,which is conducive to subsequent solvent extraction directly.High purity REO(99.92%)is obtained by solvent extraction separation,oxalate precipitation and calcination.The total recovery yield of REO is 85.13%.

A hydrometallurgical method of energy saving type for separation of rare earth elements from rare earth polishing powder wastes with middle fraction of ceria

This study described a hydrometallurgical method to investigate the separation of rare earth elements（REEs）from rare earth polishing powder wastes（REPPWs）containing large amounts of rare earth oxides with a major phase of CeO2 and minor phases of La2O3,Pr2O3,and Nd2O3 using a process devised by the authors.The suggested approach consisted of five processes：the synthesis of NaR E（SO4）2·xH2O from rare earth oxides in Na2SO4-H2SO4-H2 O solutions（Process 1）,the conversion of NaR E（SO4）2·xH2O into RE（OH）3 using NaO H（Process 2）,and the oxidation of Ce（OH）3 into Ce（OH）4 using air with O2 injection（Process 3）,followed by Processes 4 and 5 for separation of REEs by acid leaching using HCl and H2SO4,respectively.To confirm the high yield of NaR E（SO4）2·xH2O in Process 1,experiments were carried out under various Na2SO4 concentrations（0.4–2.5 mol/L）,sulfuric acid concentrations（6–14 mol/L）,and reaction temperatures（95–125 oC）.In addition,the effect of the pH value on the separation of Ce（OH）4 in HCl-H2 O solutions with Ce（OH）4,La-,Pr-,and Nd（OH）3 in Process 4 was also investigated.On the basis of above results,the possibility of effective separation of REEs from REPPWs could be confirmed.