Rare earth element extraction from geothermal brine using hybrid capacitive-deionisation process

Abstract

Rare Earth Elements (REE) in geothermal brine include pollutants such as dissolved Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, Neodymium, Promethium, Samarium, Europium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Erbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, lithium, and other ions. These REEs in geothermal brine, also popularly known as “Vitamins of the modern industry”, are vital for industries such as new energy vehicles, wind turbines, radar systems, laser crystals, etc., and harmful for agriculture and drinking purposes. Hence, identifying, quantifying, and extracting these REEs are essential and economical for a geothermal plant. The present study systematically investigates identifying and quantifying the REE and other essential ions in geothermal brine sources from Gujarat regions. For the extraction of REE from geothermal brine, geothermal brine treatment systems and their integration with automation control are designed in the present work. The proposed system filters geothermal brine and extracts REE through a hybrid filtration setup using capacitive deionization. Solar photovoltaic Water Filtration uses a hybrid Capacitive De-Ionization (CDI) treatment-based prototype to purify water and extract REE. The CDI method is an emerging technology in the desalination systems. It has far greater leverage over other desalination methods such as electrodialysis. The proposed design allows the simultaneous removal of various dissolved organic and inorganic contaminants in geothermal brine.