Microfluidic solvent extraction of rare earth elements

© 2016 TAPPI Press. All rights reserved. This paper reports solvent extraction of rare earth elements (REEs) carried out using a microfluidic device and considers the REE loading limit of the organic phase under laminar flow. The microfluidic device contacts aqueous and organic phase streams for a p...

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Main Authors: Kriel, F., Kolar, E., Sedev, Rossen, Catthoor, R., Middlemas, S., Klier, E., Hatch, G., Priest, C.
Format: Conference Paper
Published: 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68741
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author Kriel, F.
Kolar, E.
Sedev, Rossen
Catthoor, R.
Middlemas, S.
Klier, E.
Hatch, G.
Priest, C.
author_facet Kriel, F.
Kolar, E.
Sedev, Rossen
Catthoor, R.
Middlemas, S.
Klier, E.
Hatch, G.
Priest, C.
author_sort Kriel, F.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2016 TAPPI Press. All rights reserved. This paper reports solvent extraction of rare earth elements (REEs) carried out using a microfluidic device and considers the REE loading limit of the organic phase under laminar flow. The microfluidic device contacts aqueous and organic phase streams for a precisely defined contact time (sub-second resolution) and then separates them for offline analysis. Experiments are reported examining the effect of contact time on extraction. We focus on three REEs: one ‘light’ (Nd), one ‘mid’ (Dy), and one ‘heavy’ (Yb) REE, which are extracted using Cyanex®572. It appears that loading limits may be locally exceeded in the organic phase near to the liquid-liquid interface, where third phase deposits are observed. Third phase formation was also observed close to the liquid-liquid interface in two-dimensional confinement, showing similar third phase adsorption on glass plates. It is also shown that, under microfluidic flow, a typical first ‘split’ between heavy REEs and light REEs can be carried out without exceeding loading limits.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-687412018-06-29T12:27:01Z Microfluidic solvent extraction of rare earth elements Kriel, F. Kolar, E. Sedev, Rossen Catthoor, R. Middlemas, S. Klier, E. Hatch, G. Priest, C. © 2016 TAPPI Press. All rights reserved. This paper reports solvent extraction of rare earth elements (REEs) carried out using a microfluidic device and considers the REE loading limit of the organic phase under laminar flow. The microfluidic device contacts aqueous and organic phase streams for a precisely defined contact time (sub-second resolution) and then separates them for offline analysis. Experiments are reported examining the effect of contact time on extraction. We focus on three REEs: one ‘light’ (Nd), one ‘mid’ (Dy), and one ‘heavy’ (Yb) REE, which are extracted using Cyanex®572. It appears that loading limits may be locally exceeded in the organic phase near to the liquid-liquid interface, where third phase deposits are observed. Third phase formation was also observed close to the liquid-liquid interface in two-dimensional confinement, showing similar third phase adsorption on glass plates. It is also shown that, under microfluidic flow, a typical first ‘split’ between heavy REEs and light REEs can be carried out without exceeding loading limits. 2016 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68741 restricted
spellingShingle Kriel, F.
Kolar, E.
Sedev, Rossen
Catthoor, R.
Middlemas, S.
Klier, E.
Hatch, G.
Priest, C.
Microfluidic solvent extraction of rare earth elements
title Microfluidic solvent extraction of rare earth elements
title_full Microfluidic solvent extraction of rare earth elements
title_fullStr Microfluidic solvent extraction of rare earth elements
title_full_unstemmed Microfluidic solvent extraction of rare earth elements
title_short Microfluidic solvent extraction of rare earth elements
title_sort microfluidic solvent extraction of rare earth elements
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68741