2022/02/11 by Bing Deng, Xin Wang, Duy Xuan Luong +4 · 1 citation
Engineering · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Extraction and Separation Processes #Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis #Coal and Its By-products #Earth (classical element) #Rare earth #Astrobiology #Environmental science #Earth science #Biology #Geology #Physics
paper · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abm3132
openalex publication_date 2022/02/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Rare earth elements (REEs) are critical materials in electronics and clean technologies. With the diminishing of easily accessible minerals for mining, the REE recovery from waste is an alternative toward a circular economy. Present methods for REE recovery suffer from lengthy purifications, low extractability, and high wastewater streams. Here, we report an ultrafast electrothermal process (~3000°C, ~1 s) based on flash Joule heating (FJH) for activating wastes to improve REE extractability. FJH thermally degrades or reduces the hard-to-dissolve REE species to components with high thermodynamic solubility, leading to ~2× increase in leachability and high recovery yields using diluted acid (e.g., 0.1 M HCl). The activation strategy is feasible for various wastes including coal fly ash, bauxite residue, and electronic waste. The rapid FJH process is energy-efficient with a low electrical energy consumption of 600 kWh ton −1 . The potential for this route to be rapidly scaled is outlined.