Recovery of rare earth elements from acid mine drainage by ion exchange

• Published in: Environmental technology Vol. 42; no. 17; pp. 2721 - 2732
• Main Authors: Felipe, E. C. B., Batista, K. A., Ladeira, A. C. Q.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis 29-07-2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Acid mine drainage; Acid mine water; batch experiments; Cationic resin; Ion exchange; isotherms; Langmuir constants; maximum loading capacity; Mine drainage; pH effects; Rare earth elements; Recovery; Resins; Selectivity; Trace elements; Uranium; maximum loading capacity; Cationic resin; isotherms; batch experiments; Langmuir constants
• ISSN: 0959-3330; 1479-487X
• DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2020.1713219

The current work addresses the study of the recovery of rare earth elements (REE) from acid mine water by using cationic exchange resin. The acid water was obtained from a closed uranium mine in Brazil. Ion exchange experiments were carried out in batch with three different resins at 25 ± 0.5°C and pH values 1.4, 2.4 and 3.4 (natural). Data were adjusted to the Langmuir equation in order to calculate the maximum loading capacity (q
max
) of the resins. The results of q
max
for individual REE revealed that the resins present higher loading for La in detriment to the other REE. The Dowex 50WX8 and Lewatit MDS 200 H resins demonstrated favourable sorption profiles to REE, evidenced by values of equilibrium factor (R
L
) and higher values of the Langmuir constants (b). The separation factors (
) indicates that resins are more selective for light REE at all pH studied. The selectivity of the resins for the REE can be described as light REE > heavy REE. The pH 1.4 and 3.4 are more favourable for the recovery of REE.