Study on the Properties of Waste Apatite Phosphogypsum as a Raw Material of Prospective Applications

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the study on chemical and the physical properties of waste phosphogypsum (PG) of apatite origin from the former chemical plant Wizow, Poland which are important for further processing and economic use. The research was carried out to verify whether the waste might be useful as a raw material for rare earth elements (REE) recovery and the manufacture of building materials. The following methods were chosen: X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with an energy-dispersive X-ray detector, atomic absorption spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma spectrometry, differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetry, and gamma spectrometry with natural radioactive contamination analyzer. It has been proven that the chemical physical properties of phosphogypsum provide an opportunity to utilize this waste material as a source of REE and raw material for building purposes. PG contains an overall amount of REE in the interval of 0.343-0.637% by mass and does not show radioactivity level which would exclude it from construction purposes. The presented results serve as the basis for currently available technological directions in the management of apatite PG for useful trade products, which creates a chance for the elimination of its storage necessity by further processing.

Distribution of uranium and thorium chains radionuclides in different fractions of phosphogypsum grains

“…Ra concentration in phosphogypsum produced from apatite ores are found much lower (Msila et al 2016;Grabas et al 2018). The obtained results, regardless whether native or fractionated phosphogypsum is considered, clearly show that activity concentrations of 226 Ra significantly exceed upper limit set for example by European Commission based on the 1.0 mSv a −1 dose criterion, assuming bulk application of phosphogypsum and its activity concentration index (European Commission 2000).…”

Rare Earth Occurrences in Streams of Processing a Phosphate Ore

“…For different phosphate ores throughout the world the contents of total REEs vary from 0.03 to 1.0 wt. % [1,2]. This study was based on a phosphate ore with the content of total REEs 0.05 wt.…”

“…Rare earth elements (REEs) comprising 15 lanthanides plus Y and Sc are normally contained in the phosphate rocks in various contents from 0.03 to 1.0 wt. % [1,2]. In the phosphate rock processing, most of the REEs from the phosphate rock (over 85%) end up in the wastes (waste clay, flotation tailings and phosphogypsum) [3].…”

Industrial Experiment of Goaf Filling Using the Filling Materials Based on Hemihydrate Phosphogypsum

“…Soluble phosphorus and other potentially harmful elements in phosphogypsum can be leached by rainwater to form acidic wastewater, causing the serious pollution of soil and the water system [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Therefore, the comprehensive utilization of phosphogypsum has become an important issue for the sustainable development of the phosphorus chemical industry and environmental protection [19][20][21][22][23][24].…”