Centrifugal extraction of rare earths from wet-process phosphoric acid

摘要

Phosphorite ore is a potential resource of rare earths (RE) as well as phosphate; therefore, the recovery of RE from wet-process phosphoric acid (WPA) is promising. This study investigated the influence of rotational speed, extractant concentration, flow ratio and phase contact time on the centrifugal extraction of RE from WPA and the separation of RE from impurities. The results indicate that higher rotational speed, higher extractant concentration and larger flow ratio are beneficial to the extraction of RE and impurities from phosphoric acid. It is found that the phase contact time for efficiently extracting RE and that for iron are of great difference, which provides an effective method for separating RE from iron using the non-equilibrium extraction process in centrifugal contactors. Compared with equilibrium extraction, the separation factor βRE/Fe is enhanced from 0.07 to 17.6.