• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.85 no.4
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• pp.656-666
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• 1996

Aspen demand has increased recently in the Great Lakes region in the United States. Since aspen has moved into the region in late 1800's, its growing stock has increased so as to change forestry industry of the Lake States. Intensive timber harvesting and biomass removal may cause nutrient depletion, especially on nutrient-poor sites. Forest nutrients and nutrient cycling were investigated in aspen stands of 7-10, 27-33, and 41-42 year-old growing on sandy soils in Minnesota. Nutrients added to the aspen stands by atmospheric deposition and soil weathering were efficiently absorbed and stored in the tree biomass. Aboveground biomass increased from $24.4t{\cdot}ha^{-1}$ at young stands to $139.2t{\cdot}ha^{-1}$ at mature stands. Nutrients accumulated in the tree biomass showed same magnitude of difference. Nutrients added to the site through atmospheric deposition were in the order of Ca, N, K, Mg, and P. Annual litterfall was greater in older stands. However, the amount of nutrients returned by litterfall was not significantly different among stand ages due to the greater nutrient contents in the litterfall of young stands. Litter decomposition and nutrient release rates were greater at young stands than at older stands. Likewise, nutrient availability was higher in young aspen stands and became lower as the stands grew older. Nutrient leaching loss was minimal at all stand ages. Soil N mineralization was greater at young stands than at older stands. Nutrient cycling process was facilitated in young aspen stands with an increased level of available nutrients, Based on the estimations of nutrient balance and nutrient removal by harvesting, Ca was the most critical element which was likely to be depleted if aspen stands are intensively harvested with short rotations.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2003

Mn was extracted by using a nitric acid from the reduced ferromanganese dust and the basic experiments were taken to refine the manganese nitrate solution by means of precipitation of Ca, Mg oxalate. The dust was generated in AOD process producing a medium-low carbon ferromanganese and collected in the bag filter. Manganese oxide content in the dust was about 90% and its phase was confirmed as $Mn_3$$O_4$. $Mn_3$$O_4$ in the dust was reduced to MnO by roasting with activated charcoal. The main impurities in the extracted solution prepared by leaching the reduced dust with nitric acid were Na, K, Fe, Si, Ca, Mg etc. Among them, Fe was removed by controlling pH of the solution more than 4 and precipitating $Fe(OH)_3$, simultaneously silicious material solved in the solution was removed by co-precipitation with the ferric hydroxide. Addition of 150 g reduced dust into 4N HNO3 solution 1$\ell$ was appropriate to control the pH of the solution to pH 4. To differ greatly the solubilities of manganese oxalate and calcium or magnesium oxalate in a solution containing a high concentration of Mn, pH of 4 or less and addition of ($NH_4$)$_2$$C_2$$O_4$ in equivalent with Ca and Mg are recommended. At this time, the higher temperature was the shorter the precipitation reaction time was needed.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.14 no.6 s.68
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• pp.3-9
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• 2005

In this study, the separation and recovery of cerium hydroxide was investigated from the wasted cerium polishing powders. Waste cerium polishing powder contains $64.5\;wt\%$ of rare earth oxide and the content of cerium oxide is $36.5\;wt\%$. Since cerium oxide, $56.3\%$ of rare earths, is the most stable state in rare earth, the dissolution of cerium oxide in acid solution is not easy. Therefore the process of rare earth oxide by sulfation and water leaching was examined in order to increase the recovery of rare earth. Rare earth elements were recovered in the form of $\Re{\cdot}Na(SO_{4})_{2}$ by the addition of sodium sulfate to leached solution. The slurry of rare earth hydroxide was prepared by the addition of $\Re{\cdot}Na(SO_{4})_{2}$ to sodium hydroxide solution. After the oxidation of cerous hydroxide($CE(OH)_{3}$) to ceric hydroxide($CE(OH)_{3}$) by aeration, ceric hydroxide was separated from other rare earth hydroxides by controlling the acidity of solution.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.42-49
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• 2017

As a fundamental study for the separation of vanadium and tungsten from the leaching solution obtained from the soda roasting and water leaching process of spent SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) catalyst was carried out. The precipitation behaviors of vanadium and tungsten using the artificial solution (V: $1g{\cdot}L^{-1}$, W: $10g{\cdot}L^{-1}$) was investigated depending on temperature, NaOH concentration and the amount of $CaCl_2$ (aq.) added. V (aq.) was selectively precipitated at lower temperature than 293 K while tungsten also was precipitated at higher temperature. Precipitation rate of V and W was decreased by the increasing concentration of NaOH. On the other hand, excess Ca addition induced the increase of precipitation rate for V and W due to the formation of $Ca(OH)_2$ following the pH decline. The response surface methodology was employed to optimize the selective precipitation. Vanadium of 99.5% and tungsten of 0.0% was precipitated at $0.5mol{\cdot}L^{-1}$ of aqueous NaOH and 1 equivalent ratio of $CaCl_2$ at 293 K.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.28-39
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• 2016

Struvite (MgNH₄PO₄ ⋅ 6H₂O) and hydroxyapatite (HAP, Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆(OH)₂) precipitation in urine-separating toilets (NoMix toilets) causes severe maintenance problems and also reduce the phosphate and calcium content. Application of urine separating technique and extraction of by-products from human urine is a cost effective technique in waste water treatment. In this study, we extract urine calcite from human urine by batch scale method, using urease producing microbes to trigger the precipitation and calcite formation process. Extracted urine calcite (calcining at 800℃) is a potential adsorbent for removal of heavy metal(loid)s like (Cd²⁺, Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺, Pb²⁺, Zn²⁺ and As³⁺) along with additional leaching analysis of total nitrogen (T-N), phosphate (T-P) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The transformations of calcite during synthesis were confirm by characterization using XRD, SEM-EDAX and FT-IR techniques. In additional, the phosphate leaching potential and adsorbate (nitrate) efficiency in aqueous solution was investigated using the calcinedurine calcite. The results indicate that the calcite was effectively remove heavy metal(loid)s lead up to 96.8%. In addition, the adsorption capacity (q_e) of calcite was calculated and it was found to be 203.64 Pb, 110.96 Cd, 96.02 Zn, 104.2 As, 149.54 Cu and 162.68 Ni mg/g, respectively. Hence, we suggest that the calcite obtain from the human urine will be a suitable absorbent for heavy metal(loid)s removal from aqueous solution.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.23-29
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• 2018

Recently rapid economic growth and technological development have led to an increase in the generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). As the amount of electric and electronic waste generated increases, the importance of processing waste printed circuit boards (PCB) is also increasing. Various studies have been conducted to recycle various valuable metals contained in a waste PCB in an environmentally friendly and economical manner. To get anode slime containing Ag and Au, Anode copper prepared from PCB scraps was used by means of electro-refining. Ag and Au recovery was conducted by leaching, direct reduction, and ion exchange method. In the case of silver, the anode slime was leached at 3 M $HNO_3$, 100 g/L, $70^{\circ}C$, and Ag was recovered by precipitation, alkali dissolution, and reduction method. In the case of gold, the nitrate leaching residues of the anode slime was leached at 25% aqua regia, 200 g/L, $70^{\circ}C$, and Au was recovered by pH adjustment, ion exchange resin adsorption, desorption and reduction method. The purity of the obtained Au and Ag were confirmed to be 99.99%.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.192-202
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• 2019

Physicochemical properties and sintering characteristics of pottery stone (Taebaek, Haenam, Aphae, Haengnam) were evaluated as a raw material for porcelain products. Due to acid leaching procedure, the concentration of iron oxide ($Fe_2O_3$) was decreased to < 1.0 wt%, which affects the whiteness of sintered samples. Mean particle size of acid leached samples is $5.7{\sim}10{\mu}m$ with narrow particle size distribution (PSD), which is lower than that of the pristine ($8{\sim}18{\mu}m$) with broad PSD. According to phase analysis by X-ray diffraction, most of pottery stones (PS) have Quartz phase as a main phase with Pyrophyllite as a second phase, however, Haenam PS shows halloysite phase. The absorption rate was in order of Taebaek (A, B, C)~Aphae (A, B) < Taebaek (Special A) < Haengnam < Haenam, and the samples sintered in reductive atmosphere showed lower absorption rate. This result might be due to the concentration of feldspar contained in PS, working as a flux in sintering process. Comparing the color of the sintered samples, the whiteness of refined PS (Taebaek special A, Haenam, Hangnam) is higher than acid leached PS (Taebaek A/B/C, Aphae A/B). The whiteness (L*) for refined PS is 95~97 %, which is higher than acid leached (82~96 %). This might be due to lower iron oxide concentration of the refined PS (0.11~0.58 %) than those of the acid leached PS (0.41~1.91 %) even though most of iron oxide was removed by acid leaching.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.45-52
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• 2019

$TiO_2$ as a raw material for producing titanium can be produced by carbon reduction of natural ilmenite ores over 1823 K and acid leaching of the obtained titanium-rich slag. However, the conventional process can cause very high energy consumption and a large amount of leaching residues. In the present study, we proposed the sulfurization of $FeTiO_3$ with $Na_2SO_4$ at temperatures below 1573 K, which can separate Fe in $FeTiO_3$ as the FeS based sulfide phase and Ti as the $TiO_2-Na_2O$ based oxide phase. This study is a fundamental study for sulfurization of $FeTiO_3$ to investigate the influence of reducing atmosphere, reaction temperature and the sulfur/Fe ratio on the separability and distribution behaviors of of Fe, Ti, and Na between the oxide phase and the sulfurized phase. At 1573 K and carbon saturation condition, the Fe can be separated from $FeTiO_3$ as Fe-C-S metal and a part of FeS, and the concentration of Fe in oxide decreased to 4 mass% after sulfurization.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.3-11
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• 2024

This study addressed the cost structure of metallurgical plants for vanadium recovery or production, which were previously planned or implemented. Vanadium metallurgy consists of several sub-processes such as such as pretreatment, roasting, leaching, precipitation, and filtration, in order to finally produce vanadium pentoxide. Here, lots of costs should be spent for such plants, in which these costs are largely divided into CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) and OPEX (Operational Expenditure). As a result, the capacities (feed input rates) and vanadium contents are various along the target projects for this study. However, final production rates and grades of vanadium pentoxide showed relatively small differences. In addition, a noticeable correlation is found between capacities and specific operating costs, in that a steadily decreasing trend is described with a non-linear curve with around -0.3 power. Therefore, for the plant capacity below 100,000 tons per year, the specific operating cost rapidly decreases as the capacity increases, whereas the cost remains relatively stable in the range of 0.6 to 1.2 million tons per year of the capacity. From a technical perspective, effective optimization of the metallurgical process plant can be achieved by improving vanadium recovery rate in the pre-treatment and/or roasting-leaching processes. Finally, the results of this study should be updated through future research with on-going field verification and further detailed cost analysis.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.213-219
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• 2018

We report a method for preparing rare earth oxides ($Re_xO_y$) from the recycling process for spent Ni-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries. This process first involves a leaching of spent Ni-MH powders with sulfuric acid at $90^{\circ}C$, resulting in rare earth precipitates (i.e., $NaRE(SO_4)_2{\cdot}H_2O$, RE = La, Ce, Nd), which are converted into rare earth oxides via two different approaches: i) simple heat treatment in air, and ii) metathesis reaction with NaOH at $70^{\circ}C$. Not only the morphological features but also the crystallographic structures of all products are systematically investigated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD); their thermal behaviors are also analyzed. In particular, XRD results show that some of the rare earth precipitates are converted into oxide form (such as $La_2O_3$, $Ce_2O_3$, and $Nd_2O_3$) with heat treatment at $1200^{\circ}C$; however, secondary peaks are also observed. On the other hand, rare earth oxides, RExOy can be successfully obtained after metathesis of rare earth precipitates, followed by heat treatment at $1000^{\circ}C$ in air, along with a change of crystallographic structures, i.e., $NaRE(SO_4)_2{\cdot}H_2O{\rightarrow}RE(OH)_3{\rightarrow}RE_xO_y$.