REESEP · Improvement of Technical Capabilities for Research and Development (R&D) Related to Separation, Determination and Preliminary Production of different Rare Earth Elements
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2009-11-01 → 2011-10-31
- EU contribution
- €251,508
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-IIF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Final Report Summary - REESEP (Improvement of Technical Capabilities for Research and Development (R&D) Related to Separation, Determination and Preliminary Production of different Rare Earth Elements
Improvement of technical capabilities for research and development related to separation, determination and preliminary production of different rare earth elements (REESEP) While rare earth elements (REE) are an important in the development major of sustainable green technologies like wind power and electric vehicles, their supply, which is practically monopolised in China, is not expected to meet the demand in the near future. Paradoxically, production of REEs is in many cases unsustainable, causing major environmental damage. Consequently, industrialised nations (including European Union (EU)) have defined REEs as strategic resources and formulated policies for their sustainable supply and production. Egypt has vast REE stockpiles in its black sand deposits and could become an important source of REEs to EU in the future. In this context, basic research was conducted in REESEP to study ion exchange technologies for sustainable REE separation. Basic research was first carried out using inorganic ion exchange materials, which have existing applications in nuclear industry. Metal antimonate materials showed promise in the separation of REEs from heavy metals, which is an important step in the over-all extraction process. Similarly promising results were obtained with hybrid silica-based materials. At the end, very promising results were obtained with organic ion exchange resins for individual REE separation utilising REE-selective organic ligands. The results can be utilised in Egyptian on-programme to extract REEs form its national resources (programme underway at pilot-scale). The project exposed Egypt to European research of REEs with a successful application to a European cooperation in science and technology (EU COST) action (CM1006 EUFEN), agreement on Finnish-Egyptian researcher exchange and a joint research proposal to the Academy of Finland. When successful, these actions will facilitate further EU-Egypt cooperation in the field.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Currently, there is a growing demand for rare earth elements (REEs) production technology to satisfy many characteristics economically and industrial activities. In this respect, expanding needs are therefore requested for production of lanthanides, which is considered as one of our primary industrial objectives. In general, the proposed project is oriented to gather the new idea during the mutually beneficial research cooperation in the field of inter and intra separation as well as production of lanthanide elements. This could be particularly fulfill through the following items:- • Development and improvement of a reliable and reproducible analytical method for rapid separation and accurate determination of (REEs) based on the new development in ion chromatographic technique and new ion exchange resins which offer a separation mechanism by which this objective could be accomplished. • Combination of wet chemistry based ion exchange chromatography and advanced detection instrumentation to get sufficient separation and measurement of REEs will be tested using simi-automated method including ion chromatographic column separation and on-line post column derivatization measuring system. • Detailed study of the interferences arises between lanthanides themselves and the interferences arises due to the presence of heavy metals that present in such real samples such as minerals and rocks. • Production of rare earths on a large scale is an application of the ion exchange chromatography technique, whereas the recovery of individual rare earth metals with high degree of purity is available using various types of commercially stationary phases. • The use of well established own analytical method based of on-line ion chromatographic technique to assess the product purification and quality. • Extensive geological prospection and exploration, including field mapping, core drilling and sampling will be carried out in a various interesting location in Finland plateau t
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO · HelsinkiCoordinatorFinland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union