Techno-Economic Assessment for Integrating Biosorption into Rare Earth Recovery Process

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The current uncertainty in the global supply of rare earth elements (REEs) necessitates the development of novel extraction technologies that utilize a variety of REE source materials. Herein, we examined the techno-economic performance of integrating a biosorption approach into a large-scale process for producing salable total rare earth oxides (TREOs) from various feedstocks. An airlift bioractor is proposed to carry out a biosorption process mediated by bioengineered rare earth-adsorbing bacteria. Techno-econmic asssements were compared for three distinctive categories of REE feedstocks requiring different pre-processing steps. Key parameters identified that affect profitability include REE concentration, composition of the feedstock, and costs of feedstock pretreatment and waste management. Among the 11 specific feedstocks investigated, coal ash from the Appalachian Basin was projected to be the most profitable, largely due to its high-value REE content. Its cost breakdown includes pre-processing (primarily leaching) (8077.71%), biosorption (1619.04%), and oxalic acid precipitation and TREO roasting (3.35%). Surprisingly, biosorption from the high-grade Bull Hill REE ore is less profitable due to high material cost and low production revenue. Overall, our results confirmed that the application of biosorption to low-grade feedstocks for REE recovery is economically viable.

Citation Formats

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (2017). Techno-Economic Assessment for Integrating Biosorption into Rare Earth Recovery Process [data set]. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.15121/1452714.
Export Citation to RIS
Jiao, Yongqin, Sutherland, John, Jin, Hongyue, Park, Dan, Brewer, Aaron, and Gupta, Mayank. Techno-Economic Assessment for Integrating Biosorption into Rare Earth Recovery Process . United States: N.p., 01 Jul, 2017. Web. doi: 10.15121/1452714.
Jiao, Yongqin, Sutherland, John, Jin, Hongyue, Park, Dan, Brewer, Aaron, & Gupta, Mayank. Techno-Economic Assessment for Integrating Biosorption into Rare Earth Recovery Process . United States. https://dx.doi.org/10.15121/1452714
Jiao, Yongqin, Sutherland, John, Jin, Hongyue, Park, Dan, Brewer, Aaron, and Gupta, Mayank. 2017. "Techno-Economic Assessment for Integrating Biosorption into Rare Earth Recovery Process ". United States. https://dx.doi.org/10.15121/1452714. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/964.
@div{oedi_964, title = {Techno-Economic Assessment for Integrating Biosorption into Rare Earth Recovery Process }, author = {Jiao, Yongqin, Sutherland, John, Jin, Hongyue, Park, Dan, Brewer, Aaron, and Gupta, Mayank.}, abstractNote = {The current uncertainty in the global supply of rare earth elements (REEs) necessitates the development of novel extraction technologies that utilize a variety of REE source materials. Herein, we examined the techno-economic performance of integrating a biosorption approach into a large-scale process for producing salable total rare earth oxides (TREOs) from various feedstocks. An airlift bioractor is proposed to carry out a biosorption process mediated by bioengineered rare earth-adsorbing bacteria. Techno-econmic asssements were compared for three distinctive categories of REE feedstocks requiring different pre-processing steps. Key parameters identified that affect profitability include REE concentration, composition of the feedstock, and costs of feedstock pretreatment and waste management. Among the 11 specific feedstocks investigated, coal ash from the Appalachian Basin was projected to be the most profitable, largely due to its high-value REE content. Its cost breakdown includes pre-processing (primarily leaching) (8077.71%), biosorption (1619.04%), and oxalic acid precipitation and TREO roasting (3.35%). Surprisingly, biosorption from the high-grade Bull Hill REE ore is less profitable due to high material cost and low production revenue. Overall, our results confirmed that the application of biosorption to low-grade feedstocks for REE recovery is economically viable. }, doi = {10.15121/1452714}, url = {https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/964}, journal = {}, number = , volume = , place = {United States}, year = {2017}, month = {07}}
https://dx.doi.org/10.15121/1452714

Details

Data from Jul 1, 2017

Last updated Jun 14, 2018

Submitted Sep 5, 2017

Organization

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Contact

Yongqin Jiao

925.422.4482

Authors

Yongqin Jiao

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

John Sutherland

Purdue University

Hongyue Jin

Purdue University

Dan Park

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Aaron Brewer

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Mayank Gupta

Purdue University

DOE Project Details

Project Name Extraction of Rare Earth Metals from Geothermal Fluids using Bioengineered Microbes

Project Lead Holly Thomas

Project Number LLNL FY17 AOP 2.5.1.12

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