• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.193-202
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• 2024

It has been reported that rare earth elements (REEs) are considerably present in coal ash. In this study, an ecofriendly sequential extraction method was developed for the effective REE recovery from coal ash and leaching wastewaters. Citrate, a weak and environmentally benign solvent that replaces acetate employed in the existing sequential extraction methods (e.g., European community bureau of reference (BCR) and Tessier methods), was found to be highly effective in leaching REEs from coal ash. Microwave-assisted thermal digestion improved the REE extraction efficiency even further, with an overall leaching rate of 70%, which is 2.54 and 3.76 times higher than the values achieved by the conventional BCR and Tessier methods, respectively. It was also confirmed that the majority of REEs was strongly bound to CaO, Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, and P₂O₅, not to SiO₂. The sequential extraction method developed in this study is expected to be used as an effective and simple recovery procedure for REEs from coal ash and remaining leaching wastewaters.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2014

In present study, we geochemically investigated the fresh coal ashes and the saline ash pond of an electric power plant in Korea, which burns imported bituminous coals. The goals are to see the chemical changes of the ash pond by reaction with coal ashes and to investigate the relative leachability of elements from the ashes by reaction with saline waters. For this study, one fresh fly ash, one fresh bottom ash, and 7 water samples were collected. All the ash samples and 2 water samples were analyzed for 55 elements. The results indicated that the fly ashes are enriched with chalcophilic elements such as Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, Se, Cd, Sb, Au, Pb, and B relative to other elements. On the other hand, concentrations of As, Ba, Co, Ga, Li, Mn, Mo, Sb, U, V, W, and Zr are much higher in the ash pond than those dissolved in the seawater. Ag, Bi, Li, Mo, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, Sn, Sr, and W show high ratios of elemental concentrations in pond water to those in the fly ash. Our results imply that the leaching of trace elements is regulated by geochemical controls such as solubility and adsorption even though the trace elements are relatively enriched on the ash surfaces after the coal combustion due to their volatilities.