netl-ree-technical-reports

The National Energy Technology Laboratory is a U.S national laboratory under the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy. NETL focuses on applied research for the clean production and use of domestic energy resources

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National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)

REE-Final-Report_2016-10-14.pdf

This report summarizes the results of the review and compilation of published information concerning the geology, geochemistry, and resource estimates of select coal basins in the United States, with emphasis on REEs.  These data were evaluated with respect to criteria that could be useful in defining “sweet spots” of these metals in coals and associated waste rock and/or ash.  To accomplish this, five western States (Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, and Montana) and four eastern States (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky) were chosen for study.  The United States Geological Survey (USGS Coal Quality (CoalQual) Database was used extensively in this evaluation.


TT Assessment of REE Contents in Select US Coal Basins Final Report v20150116.pdf

The Pennsylvania State University conducted a study to evaluate the potential to concentrate rare earth elements (REEs) that exist in coal and coal byproducts.  Samples were collected from surface mines in Pennsylvania as well as from various coal preparation plants and coal-burning power plants. The samples were selected out of collected materials that included overburden material (roof rock), pit cleanings from a coal surface mine, and two refuse materials from coal preparation plant refuse streams. The collected samples were prepared using standard mineral processing procedures and subjected to various separations procedures and characterization analyses including, gravity separation (float-sink/washability tests), magnetic separation methods, electrostatic separation methods and ion exchange-based leaching methods.
The collected samples and their derivatives from various separation/enrichment methods were analyzed for REE concentrations by multiple analytical techniques. The samples were also subject to proximate analysis.


Penn State Separation of Rare Earth Elements from Coal and Coal Products Final Report v20150513.pdf

University of Alaska report providing results of investigation of rare earth elements in selected coal and power plant byproduct samples from Alaska.  Washability, wet high intensity magnet separation and flotation results and REE distributions are included for these samples.


UAF Identification of REE in Coal and Ash Samples Final Report v20150127.pdf

The report summarizes a study of the effectiveness of applying X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer analysis as a field screening method to rapidly and economically evaluate coal and coal waste products to determine their potential to contain rare earth elements (REE).

TetraTech Study on the Utilization of Portable XRF Spectroscopy as Screening Tool for REEs in Coal and Coal Waste Products_Final Report v20150518.pdf

The University of Kentucky conducted a study to evaluate the potential to concentrate rare earth elements (REEs) that exist in coal and coal byproducts using existing physical cleaning methods and technologies.  The investigation involved the collection of six coal and coal byproducts samples from locations that were identified as having material with potentially elevated REE contents.  A mineralogical study was conducted on selected samples from pre-concentration studies involving the use of SEM-EDS and ToF-SIMS. The potential for pre-concentrating REEs using density-based separators was found to be minimal which can be explained by the ultrafine grain sizes of the RE minerals.  Froth flotation was found to be the only method of six evaluated that could be exploited to pre-concentrate REEs.  A RE mineral release and concentration study was conducted on a sample collected from the middlings stream of an operating preparation plant treating Fire Clay seam coal.  A survey of 20 coal preparation plants from which samples were segregated by particle size and density resulted in 771 samples that were analyzed for total REEs.  Details of the above efforts are presented in this report along with accompanying data. 


University of KY Laboratory and Bench-Scale Testing Final Report v20150123.pdf

University of Utah report providing results of washability, magnetic separation, and flotation separation  analyses with REE concentration data for selected Western US raw coal, refuse, and bottom ash/fly ash samples.  Recommendations for future investigations are included for the areas of mineralogical analysis, physical separation technologies, and chemical separation technologies. 
