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Investigation of Different Processing Routes for Rare Earth Extraction from Discarded Tubular Lights

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Abstract

Discarded tubular lights were crushed and sieved to retrieve phosphor powder comprising about 40% rare earth (Y, La, Ce, Eu, Tb) present in phosphor. In this study, different processing routes comprising direct leaching, leaching followed by thermal treatment, and thermal treatment are investigated for recovery of Y, Eu, Ce, Tb, and La. The heat treatment process was optimized at different microwave exposure time and compared with the conventional heat treatment. Leaching of Eu–Y values followed by microwave treatment of leach residue with sodium hydroxide was found promising for REEs extraction. Microwave route yielded 94% La, 9% Ce, 45% Eu, and 62% Tb extraction with 50% NaOH dosage and 87% La, 8%Ce, 65% Eu, and 95% Tb extraction on increasing NaOH dosage to 100%. The material balance shows that 50 g mixed oxide of Y, Eu, and ~ 11 g mixed oxide of La, Ce, Eu, Tb, Y with purity more than 97% are recovered from 100 units of discarded tubular lights. The adopted process is simple, adaptable, and can recover appreciable rare earth elements within a short time from discarded slim tube lights.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful for the financial support of the Faculty Initiation Grant provided by the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Thanks are also due to Institute Instrumentation Centre for providing access to characterization facilities and Mr. Himanshu Tanvar for valuable discussions.

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  1. Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, IIT, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India

    Neha Shukla & Nikhil Dhawan

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  1. Neha Shukla
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  2. Nikhil Dhawan
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Correspondence to Nikhil Dhawan.

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The contributing editor for this article was Brajendra Mishra.

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Shukla, N., Dhawan, N. Investigation of Different Processing Routes for Rare Earth Extraction from Discarded Tubular Lights. J. Sustain. Metall. 6, 269–280 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-020-00273-8

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