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Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

uknow.uky.edu

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Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#31

Post by OrganicMSG »

d0lph wrote: post #25
vanderZwan wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Coal is not conscious, it cannot want. This is pedantic to the point of wilfully not wanting to understand that the coal industry is implied with that statement. But if we're going down the pedantic route: > Going out of business is capitalism's way of saying your product is no longer required. Demand and need are correlated, but not the same. Capitalism works with the former, and also has an entire industry devote…

Capitalism exclusively aligns with societal needs, if society does not need or want something we don't buy it, the business evolves or goes bankrupt. Capitalism is not just amoral, but also is democratic in nature.

If society does not need or want something, there is an entire industry devoted to convincing society otherwise, that uses psychological and social modelling on vast and detailed databases of the targeted population.

Democratic systems these days are not followed, they are moulded.

Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#32

Post by throwawayuky »

mchannon wrote: post #4

Amazing how nobody who reports on this puts forward any numbers. This Appalachian coal is said to have over 300ppm of rare earth oxides in it. That means for every ton of coal, we're talking about 300g of material. Compare conventional rare earth ores, where for every ton, we're talking about 90kg (Mountain Pass). It's nice and all that these things are in coal, but thermal coal's already on its way out, Appalachian…

I'm from the University of Kentucky, and I've been reported on through UKNow before. The reporters are not all that great at getting information about your project, and can contain inaccuracies. I also imagine that, since some of this is patent-pending, they are not willing to divulge much else other than what is described.

Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#33

Post by d0lph »

OrganicMSG wrote: post #31
d0lph wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism exclusively aligns with societal needs, if society does not need or want something we don't buy it, the business evolves or goes bankrupt. Capitalism is not just amoral, but also is democratic in nature.

If society does not need or want something, there is an entire industry devoted to convincing society otherwise, that uses psychological and social modelling on vast and detailed databases of the targeted population. Democratic systems these days are not followed, they are moulded.

Really, because I thought there was debate of whether or not advertising actually works, especially online advertising.

However, at the end of the day it won't matter. Advertising is available to all companies, we end up with a tug of war over peoples attentions, which will probably result in advertising becoming ineffective.

Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#34

Post by Symbiote »

John_KZ wrote: post #27
ClintFix wrote: post #24

I was an engineer at a company attempting to extract rare earth metals from fly ash using a solvent method (supercritical CO2). Similar to how caffeine is removed from coffee. There aren’t a lot of rare earths in coal/fly ash but even modest coal plants produce tons of fly ash daily.

Also fly ash is a pain in the ass to get rid off. I've heard about companies re-using it in concrete products and other construction materials. Even if the value produced is low, any profit is better than dealing with the cost of safely disposing it.

Making cheap bricks with waste ash has been common for decades.

Most British houses have two layers of brick, the nice ones on the outside, and these ones on the inside, which will be covered. An air (or fibreglass) gap between them provides insulation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_masonry_unit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_wall

Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#35

Post by John_KZ »

Erlangolem wrote: post #28
John_KZ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also fly ash is a pain in the ass to get rid off. I've heard about companies re-using it in concrete products and other construction materials. Even if the value produced is low, any profit is better than dealing with the cost of safely disposing it.

Wouldn’t that make the resulting concrete unusually radioactive?

No, the idea that fly-ash is highly radioactive is a faux created by the nuclear lobby. Some coal is more radioactive than other, but in general they're very safe from this perspective. The real problems are is it's corrosiveness, it's heavy metal content (if any), and the particle size.

Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#36

Post by vanderZwan »

logfromblammo wrote: post #30
reacweb wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO, the future is solar energy and storage. If coal wants to remain significant in long term, it has to find arguments.

I could see an argument for coal used to enrich soil for agriculture, if there were a way to economically remove all the toxic metals from it. Urine and bone meal would round it out. It could be a carbon source for a new type of terra preta . It would even be useful for the high-sulfur coals.

Both energy and resource-wise it's much cheaper to just grow plants and char them. And you probably end up with side-benefits from growing plants in the process.

Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#37

Post by topspin »

ttul wrote: post #8

What national defense application is yttrium used for?

Yttrium is used to make high performance filters and oscillators. YIG filters and oscillators are wide band high Q microwave devices used in high performance instruments, radar and frequency agile communication systems. An example would be the AN/ALQ-161A B1-B countermeasure system.

Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#38

Post by Erlangolem »

John_KZ wrote: post #35
Erlangolem wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t that make the resulting concrete unusually radioactive?

No, the idea that fly-ash is highly radioactive is a faux created by the nuclear lobby. Some coal is more radioactive than other, but in general they're very safe from this perspective. The real problems are is it's corrosiveness, it's heavy metal content (if any), and the particle size.

I live and learn, thanks. The particle size I assume is an issue for pulmonary reasons? So sequestered in concrete that wouldn’t be an issue, smart.

Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#39

Post by dpark »

d0lph wrote: post #33
OrganicMSG wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If society does not need or want something, there is an entire industry devoted to convincing society otherwise, that uses psychological and social modelling on vast and detailed databases of the targeted population. Democratic systems these days are not followed, they are moulded.

Really, because I thought there was debate of whether or not advertising actually works, especially online advertising. However, at the end of the day it won't matter. Advertising is available to all companies, we end up with a tug of war over peoples attentions, which will probably result in advertising becoming ineffective.

> Really, because I thought there was debate of whether or not advertising actually works, especially online advertising.

No, there is no debate. No one seriously argues that companies pour half a trillion dollars into advertising that doesn't work.

> However, at the end of the day it won't matter. Advertising is available to all companies, we end up with a tug of war over peoples attentions, which will probably result in advertising becoming ineffective.

It does matter. If the tug of war is between two companies that want you to buy their version of X, there is still no one advertising that you should not buy X at all. This is known as growing the market. Demand is still created in this case.

Re: Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

#40

Post by logfromblammo »

vanderZwan wrote: post #36
logfromblammo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could see an argument for coal used to enrich soil for agriculture, if there were a way to economically remove all the toxic metals from it. Urine and bone meal would round it out. It could be a carbon source for a new type of terra preta . It would even be useful for the high-sulfur coals.

Both energy and resource-wise it's much cheaper to just grow plants and char them. And you probably end up with side-benefits from growing plants in the process.

What if one of your goals is to buy votes of otherwise-unemployed coal miners?

If the coal has no economic uses for energy production, but the mining has some reason to happen anyway, where the coal itself becomes a by-product, turning it into agricultural soil wouldn't be entirely horrible. The heavy metals would probably have to be removed before disposing of it anyway.

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