Rare earth recovery from phosphor material and associated method
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsKarthick Vilapakkam Gourishankar, Alok Mani Srivastava, Prasanth Kumar Nammalwar, Satya Kishore Manepalli
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for recovering at least one rare earth element from a phosphor is presented. The method includes a halogenation step (a) and a reduction step (b). The phosphor is first halogenated in a molten salt to convert at least one rare earth constituent contained therein to a soluble rare earth halide. Then, the rare earth halide in the molten salt can be reduced, to convert the rare earth halide to a rare earth element in its elemental state. A method for individually recovering multiple rare earth elements from a phosphor is also presented.
Claims24
A method for recovering at least one rare earth element from a phosphor, comprising the steps of:
- a) halogenating the phosphor in a molten salt, to convert at least one rare earth constituent contained therein to a soluble, rare earth halide;
- and
- b) reducing the rare earth halide in the molten salt, to convert the rare earth halide to a rare earth element in its elemental state.
A method for recovering at least one rare earth element from a rare earth containing phosphor, comprising reducing the phosphor electrolytically in a molten salt, and in the presence of a halogenating agent, to separate rare earth elements from the phosphor in their elemental state.
A method for individually recovering multiple rare earth elements from a phosphor, comprising the steps of:
- a) halogenating the phosphor in a molten salt, to convert multiple rare earth contituents contained therein to soluble, rare earth halides;
- and
- b) selectively reducing rare earth halides in the molten salt, to convert the rare earth halides to rare earth elements in their elemental state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.