Rare earth recovery from phosphor material and associated method

US8282703B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• General Electric Company · US

Inventors

• Karthick Vilapakkam Gourishankar · Downers Grove, US
• Alok Mani Srivastava · San Francisco, US
• Prasanth Kumar Nammalwar · Savanuru, IN
• Satya Kishore Manepalli · Bengaluru, IN

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 20, 2010
• Grant date: Oct 9, 2012
• Expiry date: Apr 11, 2031

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02P10/20
• WIPO field: Materials, metallurgy
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

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.