An investigation into six coal fly ashes from the United Kingdom and Poland to evaluate rare earth element content

Detection of rare earth elements in Powder River Basin sub-bituminous coal ash using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

“…Various metal elements were also detected. Although some rare earth elements in the lanthanide series have been identified for some coals and coal ash samples [2,[6][7][8], rare earth elements of both actinide and lanthanide series in PRB-coal ash are reported here for the first time. Comparisons with other detection techniques, therefore, could not be made at present.…”

“…Recently, however, it has been reported that many rare earth elements were found in coal samples from certain regions in Germany and in the United Sates [1][2][3][4][5] in Bulgaria [6], in Bangladesh [7], and in United Kingdom and Poland [8]. Since the combustion of coal for energy generation results in highly concentrated non-volatile minerals in the coal ash wastes, the concentrations of rare-earth elements in coal ash could be enriched up to within the range of mineral ore deposits [1,4,8,9]. For example, as reported by Seredin and Dai [1], Mayfield and Lewis [9] the total rare earth concentrations in a Kentucky coal were about 54.9 mg/kg while in coal ash from a Kentucky power plant they were from 1312.6 to 1667 mg/kg in fly ash and 1202.5 mg/kg in bottom ash.…”

Metalliferous coal deposits in East Asia (Primorye of Russia and South China): A review of geodynamic controls and styles of mineralization

“…The annual processing capacity of this plant is 800,000-t Al 2 O 3 and approximately 150-t Ga Seredin, 2012b). Intensive research on resource evaluation and on the origin of the REY, Li, Sc, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, and U enrichment in these metalliferous coal deposits (both coals and host rocks), as well as methods for their extraction from coal ashes, have been and are currently being conducted in the USA (Finkelman and Brown, 1991;Hower et al, 1999;Mardon and Hower, 2004;Mastalerz and Drobniak, 2012), Europe (Eskenazy, 1987a,b;Blissett et al, 2014;Yossifova, 2014), Australia (Jaireth et al, 2014), India (Prachiti et al, 2011;Saikia et al, 2015), and, in particular, China (Dai et al, 2010;Wang et al, 2011;Dai et al, 2012;Zhuang et al, 2012;Sun et al, 2013;Zhao et al, 2013;Dai et al, 2014a,b,c) and Russia (Seredin, 1991(Seredin, , 1996Arbuzov et al, 2000;Kryukova et al, 2001;Arbuzov et al, 2003;Seredin, 2004;Seredin et al, 2006;Seredin and Tomson, 2008;Arbuzov et al, 2011;Seredin et al, 2013;Arbuzov et al, 2014).…”

Leaching Process of Rare Earth Elements, Gallium and Niobium in a Coal-Bearing Strata-Hosted Rare Metal Deposit—A Case Study from the Late Permian Tuff in the Zhongliangshan Mine, Chongqing

“…However, extraction techniques directly related to the recovery of rare metals from coal deposits, which are undoubtedly the critical issue for metalliferous coal uses, have been paid less attention in the literature. At present, the possible recovery of rare metal elements from coal-bearing strata and coal combustion products (CCPs) is an exciting research area, since coal and particularly its combustion derivations may have elevated concentrations of metal elements that are comparable to or even higher than those found in conventional metal ores [5,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. For this reason, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) funded 10 projects in 2015 aiming to support the lab's research program on the recovery of REE from coal and coal byproducts [28].…”