Separation of Rare Earth Precipitates From LiCl-KCl Eutectic Salts by a Distillation at a Reduced Pressure

Abstract

Distillation and condensation characteristics of LiCl-KCl eutectic salts containing rare earth precipitates were investigated to separate the rare earth precipitates from the salts effectively. The distillation flux of the salts was increased by about 1,000 times by reducing the ambient pressure from 760 Torr to 0.5 Torr. The salt vapors were almost changed into salt lumps during a salt distillation at the ambient pressure of 0.5 Torr and they were collected in the condensed salt storage. However, fine salt particles were formed when the salt distillation was processed at 10 Torr and it is difficult for them to be recovered. Therefore, it is thought that a salt vacuum distillation and condensation should be processed to recover almost all of the vaporized salts at a pressure below 0.5 Torr.