Abstmt-Germania is the primary dopant used to control the refractive index profile in optical waveguides. However, its poor efficiency of incorporation and its high cost create a need for recovery. This paper describes a system to recover the unused germanium from the manufacturing ements. Briefly, the process includes 1) a gas scrubber to incorporate the unreacted germanium into solution, 2) a recirculation system to increase the germanium concentration, 3) a reaction to form a germanium precipitate, and 4) a filtration step to isolate the germanium-containing solids. The process is capable of recovering greater than 95 percent of the unreacted germanium.

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