Recovery of rare earth elements from nitrophosphoric acid solutions

In the present study, the recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) from an apatite concentrate in the nitrophosphate process of fertilizer production has been studied. The apatite concentrate has been recovered from iron ore tailings in Sweden by flotation. In the first step, the apatite is digested in concentrated nitric acid, after which Ca(NO3)2.4H2O is separated by cooling crystallization. The solution is then neutralized using ammonia whereby the REEs precipitate mainly as phosphates (REEPO4.nH2O) and together with calcium as REEn Cam (PO4)(3n + 2m) / 3. In this work, the degree of rare earth coprecipitation during seeded cooling crystallization of Ca(NO3)2.4H2O has been studied. The solubility of calcium nitrate tetrahydrate (Ca(NO3)2.4H2O) in acidic nitrophosphoric acid solutions in the temperature range of − 2 °C to 20 °C has been determined. For the neutralization step, it is shown that the calcium concentration and the final pH play an important role in determining the concentration of REEs in the precipitate. It is found that reaching maximum recovery of REE with minimum simultaneous precipitation of calcium requires careful control of the final pH to about 1.8. It is further observed that the precipitation yield of REEs and iron is favored by a longer residence time and higher temperature. Finally, the effect of seeding with synthesized REE phosphate crystals as well as a mixture of REE and Ca phosphates on the precipitation rate and the composition of the precipitate was studied.