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Developments in Characterization and Mineral Processing of Coal Fly Ash for Recovery of Rare Earth Elements

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Abstract

Coal Fly Ash (CFA) is a promising technospheric resource of rare earth elements some of which are designated as critical metals in various countries due to their role in materials of contemporary significance, particularly in green energy technologies. The average REE content in CFA is about 0.05%. Due to the availability of huge volumes of CFA worldwide, focussed R&D efforts are being made to extract REEs from them along with various other valuable metals. It is the endeavour of all researchers involved to develop process schemes which are environmentally benign. Attaining such objective necessitates deeper understanding on the deportment of REEs in the feedstocks, possibility of pre-concentrating the valuables by physical beneficiation techniques and use of hydrometallurgical techniques which deploy bio-degradable or green solvents, enhancing the recyclability of reagents and conserving the process water. An important aspect in CFA utilization is to preserve the pozzolanic properties of CFA intact such that its bulk uses are not destroyed during the process of REE extraction. This chapter gives an overview on the developments in characterization of REEs in coal fly ash, strategies explored for their extraction and conceptual flowsheets developed on various feedstocks of CFA in different countries with added emphasis on Indian scenario.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Dr. Madangopal Krishnan, Director, Materials Group, BARC, for his interest in the work and encouragement. They are thankful to various Agencies in India who have generously provided the CFA samples for this research work. The support extended by their colleagues of Process Chemistry and Analysis Section is acknowledged with deep sense of gratitude.

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  1. Mineral Processing Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, AMD Complex, Begumpet, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Tumuluri Sreenivas, Md Serajuddin, Ramkaran Moudgil & Kacham Anand Rao

  2. Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

    Ramkaran Moudgil

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  1. Tumuluri Sreenivas
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Correspondence to Tumuluri Sreenivas .

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  1. Convergence Research Center for Development of Mineral Resources (DMR), Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), Daejeon, Korea (Republic of)

    Rajesh Kumar Jyothi

  2. Department of Chemistry, Fakir Mohan University, Balasore, Odisha, India

    Pankaj Kumar Parhi

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Sreenivas, T., Serajuddin, M., Moudgil, R., Anand Rao, K. (2021). Developments in Characterization and Mineral Processing of Coal Fly Ash for Recovery of Rare Earth Elements. In: Jyothi, R.K., Parhi, P.K. (eds) Clean Coal Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68502-7_17

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