METHOD OF EXTRACTING RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS FROM PHOSPHOGYPSUM Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC C22B59/00 C22B3/08 C22B3/24 

FIELD: chemistry.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to the technology of producing compounds of rare-earth elements during complex processing of apatites, particularly extraction of rare-earth elements from phosphogypsum. The method involves preparation of pulp from phosphogypsum and sorption of rare-earth elements on a sorbent. The pulp is prepared from ground phosphogypsum and sulphuric acid solution with pH=0.5-2.5 until achieving liquid:solid ratio of 4-7. Sorption is carried out directly from the phosphogypsum pulp on a sorbent with sulphuric acid functional groups for 5-7 hours with solid:sorbent ratio of 4-7.

EFFECT: high efficiency of the method owing to higher extraction of rare-earth elements without a filtration step.

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