Recovery of Rare Earth Metals (REMs) from Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries of Electric Vehicles

Nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries are extensively used in the manufacturing of portable electronic devices as well as electric vehicles due to their specific properties including high energy density, precise volume, resistance to overcharge, etc. These NiMH batteries contain significant amounts of rare earth metals (REMs) along with Co and Ni which are discarded due to illegal dumping and improper recycling practices. In view of their strategic, economic, and industrial importance, and to mitigate the demand and supply gap of REMs and the limited availability of natural resources, it is necessary to explore secondary resources of REMs. Therefore, the present paper reports a feasible hydrometallurgical process flowsheet for the recovery of REMs and valuable metals from spent NiMH batteries. More than 90% dissolution of REMs (Nd, Ce and La) was achieved using 2 M H2SO4 at 75 °C in 60 min in the presence of 10% H2O2 (v/v). From the obtained leach liquor, the REMs, such as Nd and Ce, were recovered using 10% PC88A diluted in kerosene at eq. pH 1.5 and O/A ratio 1/1 in two stages of counter current extraction. La of 99% purity was selectively precipitated from the leach liquor in the pH range of 1.5 to 2.0, leaving Cu, Ni and Co in the filtrate. Further, Cu and Ni were extracted with LIX 84 at equilibrium pH 2.5 and 5, leaving Co in the raffinate. The developed process flow sheet is feasible and has potential for industrial exploitation after scale-up/pilot trails.

Phosphogypsum Organic, a Byproduct from Rare-Earth Metals Processing, Improves Plant and Soil

Phosphogypsum organic (PG organic) is a soil conditioner, derived from residues, water leach purification (WLP) and neutralisation underflow (NUF) from rare-earth metals processing in combination with composted organic material. There was no report available with regards to the effectiveness of this byproduct for crops improvement in a sandy soil texture. Therefore, a field trial involving a multi-crop was conducted by the addition of PG organic on a sandy texture soil for 23-month period. Guinea grass or guinea grass intercropping with teak wood trees, corn and kenaf showed an improvement in cumulative fresh yield in plot treated with PG organic either with a half- or full-fertilizer recommended rate for the respective crop as compared to control. The same trend was also observed in teak wood trees in hole planting systems and pandan coconut seedlings in the polybags. Application of PG organic in each season showed a consistently higher cumulative fresh yield or yield for certain crop types due to soil ability to maintain the soil pH buffering capacity (pH 5.8–6.0). Therefore, the application of PG organic as soil conditioner promotes plant growth and development due to the improvement of soil condition by creating suitable ecosystem for nutrients absorption by roots.

Synthesis and characterization of permanent magnetic oxide system Ba1-x-yLaxCeyFe12O19 system doped with La-Ce metal using wet mechanical milling method

The development of permanent magnet-based rare earth metals becomes a serious problem if the raw materials are difficult to find. The solution chosen is to utilize an oxide-based permanent magnet with little substitution of rare earth metals. In this study presented a permanent magnetic synthesis of barium hexaferrite-based oxides that were doped with La and Ce atoms. The synthesis of this material uses the wet mechanical milling technique to obtain the single phase permanent magnet system Ba1-x-yLaxCeyFe12O19 (x = 0, 0.02, 0.04 and y = 0. 0.05, 0.1). The precursor is weighed according to stoichiometric composition and is milled for 5 hours then compressed at a pressure of 7000 Psi. Sintering temperature for the formation of the barium hexaferrite phase at 1200oC for 2 hours. All samples after sintering were characterized using XRD and EDS. A single phase is obtained on all sample compositions with a hexagonal P63/mmc structure and is supported by elemental analysis data that each substituted sample contains elements La and Ce. Lattice parameters a, b, and c appear to decrease with increasing concentrations of La and Ce doping ions with a ratio of c/a in the range of 3.93-3.94.

An Overview of Rare Earth Ores Beneficiation in Vietnam

Rare earth metals are used in electricity, electronics, nuclear, optics, space, metallurgy,superconducting and super magnetic materials, glass and ceramics, and agriculture. Some rare earthelements are added to fertilizers for crops and some trials for animal feed. Rare earth elements, exceptfor radioactive promethium, are relatively abundant in the earth's crust. Vietnam has a tremendous rareearth potential, distributed mainly in the Northwest, including Nam Xe, Dong Pao, Muong Hum, andYen Bai. There are many research projects on rare earth ores of different types globally, but the focus ismainly on the essential minerals, including monazite, xenotime, and bastnaesite. This report summarizesresearch data on rare earth ore intending to produce a general assessment of rare earth ore and itsbeneficiation technology in Vietnam.

Rare earth doped metal oxide nanoparticles for photocatalysis: a perspective

Metal oxides are well-known materials that have been considered as the prominent photocatalysts. Photocatalysis is a promising way to address the environmental issues which arecaused by fossil fuel the combustion and industrial pollutants. Lots of efforts such as doping metal oxides with metals, non-metals or metals/non-metals have been made to enhance their photocatalytic activity. More specifically, in this review we have discussed detailed synthesis procedures of rare earth doped metal oxides performed in the past decades. The advantage of doping metal oxides with rare earth metals is that they readily combine with functional groups due to the 4f vacant orbitals. Moreover, doping rare earth metals causes absorbance shift to the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum which results to show prominent photocatalysis in this region. The effect of rare earth doping on different parameters of metal oxides such as band gap and charge carrier recombination rate has been made in great details. In perspective section, we have given a brief description about how researchers can improve the photocatalytic efficiencies of different metal oxides in coming future. The strategies and outcomes outlined in this review are expected to stimulate the search for a whole new set of rare earth doped metal oxides for efficient photocatalytic applications.

Thermodynamic Studies and Optimization of the Method for Obtaining Neodymium Fluoride for the Production of Magnetic Sensors’ Sensitive Elements

Rare earth metals (REM) with magnetic properties find application in the recently developed high-tech industries. Sensor magnetic systems based on neodymium are increasingly in demand in modern engineering and geological surveys due to their favorable combination of properties of magnetic materials based on rare earth metals. One of the problems is to obtain high-quality materials for the production of such magnetic sensors. It should be noted that the high activity of REM does not allow obtaining master alloys and REM-based alloys from metallic materials; it is advisable to use halide compounds. This work discusses a method for producing neodymium fluoride from its oxide. REM fluorides can be obtained by fluorinating the oxides of these metals. Various fluorine-containing compounds or elemental fluorine are usually used as fluorinating reagents, which have their own advantages and disadvantages. The thermodynamic and technological analysis of neodymium fluoride production processes has shown the most acceptable fluorinating agent is ammonium hydrofluoride, which was used in this work. In order to increase the productivity and degree of chemical transformation, it was proposed to perform heating stepwise; i.e., at the initial stage, heat at a speed of 3 degrees per minute, after which the heating speed was reduced to 2 degrees per minute, and finally the speed was reduced to 1 degree per minute. Due to proposed heating mode, the same productivity and yield of chemical transformation were achieved, with an increased efficiency up to 30%, which can significantly reduce the cost of production. The obtained product is used in the production of neodymium-based alloys by metallothermic reduction of a mixture of fluorides. The sensor material obtained in this way is characterized by a low (less than 0.05%) oxygen content.