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Abstract
Rare earth elements (REE) have been recognised as critical raw materials, crucial for many clean technologies. As the gap between their global demand and supply increases, the search for their alternative resources becomes more and more important, especially for the countries which depend highly on their import. Coal fly ash (CFA), which when not utilised is considered waste, has been regarded as the possible source of many elements, including REE. Due to the increase in the energy demand, CFA production is expected to grow, making research into the use of this material a necessity. As Poland is the second biggest coal consumer in the European Union, the authors have studied different coal fly ashes from ten Polish power plants for their rare earth element content. All the fly ashes have a broadly similar distribution of rear earth elements, with light REE being dominant. Most of the samples have REE content relatively high and according to Seredin and Dai (Int J Coal Geol 94: 67–93, 2012) classification can be considered promising REE raw materials.
Highlights
Despite growing importance of renewable energy sources (Bertani 2010; Lund et al 2011; Tomaszewska and Pająk 2012; Tomaszewska and Szczepański 2014; Dinçer 2011), coal’s share of the global energy mix continues to rise and by 2017 will come close to surpassing oil as the world’s biggest energy source (IEA 2012)
Most of investigated fly ashes come from exploratory coal samples that have been laboratory ashed for analytical investigations, not from coal fly ash stockpiles (Blissett et al 2014)
As extraction of Rare earth elements (REE) from coal fly ash is still developing and have yet to be commercialised, there is a limited knowledge of their contents in the existing coal fly ash deposits
Summary
Despite growing importance of renewable energy sources (i.e., geothermal, wind and solar) (Bertani 2010; Lund et al 2011; Tomaszewska and Pająk 2012; Tomaszewska and Szczepański 2014; Dinçer 2011), coal’s share of the global energy mix continues to rise and by 2017 will come close to surpassing oil as the world’s biggest energy source (IEA 2012). The global coal fly ash production increases and there is a pressing need of its recycling and utilisation (Yao et al 2015; Mattigod 2003). The recent research onto coal fly ash (CFA) has been focused on its novel applications (Blissett et al 2014). There are many publications in regard to fly ash utilisation, there are only very few looking into its potential as a resource of REE, and even fewer investigate coal-biomass fly ashes for this purpose (Heebnik 2011; Blissett et al 2014). Because the use of biomass as a cofiring fuel in power plant is increasing, there is an increase in a production of ‘new kind’ of fly ashes, which have different properties from coal fly ash and often are not suitable for many common applications (e.g., in cement and concrete).
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