Recovery of rare earth elements from waste streams using membrane processes: An overview

Recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) has become an attractive process owing to the high costs and limited availabilities REEs. In addition, recovery REEs a necessity because their toxicity negative environmental impacts. Conventional processes for from waste streams include chemical precipitation, coagulation, flocculation, flotation, ion exchange, adsorption, electrochemical processes. These have various disadvantages such as consumption chemicals, operational costs, low purity extracted elements. Recently, membrane been used Compared conventional methods, higher selectivity lower energy requirements; moreover, they offer possibility zero liquid discharge. Nevertheless, it is still important evaluate economic feasibility using techniques This review paper provides overview application streams. Rejection efficiency several were analyzed. Economic was examined by comparing capital with selling prices