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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Sustainable Biofuels and Co-products Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #419313
Research Project: Chemical Conversion of Biomass into High Value Products

Location: Sustainable Biofuels and Co-products Research

Title: Screening alternative sources of critical metals via alkaline fusion: the effect of flux on digestion efficiency

Author
item KUMAR, VIKRAM - University Of Illinois
item SCOTT, JOHN - University Of Illinois
item ZHAO, LINDUO - University Of Illinois
item BARGON, MARGARITA FYDOR - University Of Illinois
item BARAL, ANIRUDDHA - University Of Illinois
item ROESLER, JEFFREY - University Of Illinois
item Sharma, Brajendra
item GARG, NISHANT - University Of Illinois

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/6/2024
Publication Date: 2/22/2025
Citation: Kumar, V., Scott, J.W., Zhao, L., Bargon, M.O., Baral, A., Roesler, J., Sharma, B.K., Garg, N. 2025. Screening alternative sources of critical metals via alkaline fusion: the effect of flux on digestion efficiency. In REWAS 2025; Lazou, A., Meskers, C., Olivetti, E., Diaz, F., Gökelma, M., Eds.; TMS 2025. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer Nature Switzerland: Cham, 2025; pp 273–282. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80892-0_26.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80892-0_26

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Industrial by-products are a potential resource for fulfilling the demand for critical metals. Critical metal concentrations in industrial by-products can show significant fluctuation, necessitating the identification of by-products with concentrations suitable for metal recovery via ICP-based methods. However, ICP-based methods require the conversion of solid by-products into a liquid form through acid digestion. Acid digestion requires significant time (~hours) and can often fail to dissolve critical metals residing in refractory minerals. These limitations of acid digestion can be potentially overcome with alkaline fusion. Here, we evaluate the feasibility of employing alkaline fusion using LiBO2 and Li2B4O7 as fluxes as an alternative to acid digestion. By analyzing two standard reference materials, we report alkaline fusion with LiBO2 as flux can completely dissolve critical metals from siliceous and non-siliceous by-products (>80% recovery). These findings suggest that alkaline fusion with LiBO2 can screen industrial by-products with concentrations suitable for metal recovery.