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  • From Trace to Pure: Pilot-S...
    Hedwig, Sebastian; Yagmurlu, Bengi; Peters, Edward Michael; Misev, Victor; Hengevoss, Dirk; Dittrich, Carsten; Forsberg, Kerstin; Constable, Edwin C; Lenz, Markus

    ACS sustainable chemistry & engineering, 2023-Apr-17, Volume: 11, Issue: 15
    Journal Article

    Scandium (Sc), declared a critical raw material in the European Union (EU), could face further supply issues as the EU depends almost entirely on imports from China, Russia, and Ukraine. In this study, a tandem nanofiltration-solvent extraction procedure for Sc recovery from titania (TiO ) acid waste was piloted and then augmented by antisolvent crystallization. The new process, comprising advanced filtration (hydroxide precipitation, micro-, ultra-, and nanofiltration), solvent extraction, and antisolvent crystallization, was assessed in relation to material and energy inputs and benchmarked on ScF production. From ∼1 m of European acid waste containing traces of Sc (81 mg L ), ∼13 g of Sc (43% yield, nine stages) was recovered as (NH ) ScF with a purity of approximately 95%, demonstrating the technical feasibility of the approach. The production costs per kilogram of ScF were lower than reported market prices, which underscores a competitive process at scale. Although a few technical bottlenecks (e.g., S/L separation and electricity consumption) need to be overcome, combining advanced filtration with solvent extraction and antisolvent crystallization promises a future supply of this critical raw material from European secondary sources.