Current methods of rare earth element (REE) recovery from industrial solutions are environmentally untenable and have significant waste management challenges. Increasing global REE consumption necessitates the development of new, sustainable means of production. Herein, we report a means of recovering aqueous REEs using monoethanolamine and carbon dioxide as predicted using the Mixed-Solvent Electrolyte thermodynamic model. Validation experiments have demonstrated the > 99% recovery of Nd³⁺ as its normal carbonate, with the filtrate containing monoethanolamine hydrogen chloride. Additional experimentation also demonstrated the > 99% recovery of aqueous La³⁺ and Y³⁺ as their respective normal carbonates. These findings demonstrate that a thermodynamic simulation engine may be used to decrease the number of empirically driven experiments required to develop a new, high yield REE recovery unit operation that is applicable to concentrated and dilute aqueous solutions typical of industrial streams.

从工业解决方案中回收稀土元素（REE）的当前方法在环境上是站不住脚的，并且对废物管理提出了重大挑战。全球REE消费量的增加有必要开发新的，可持续的生产资料。在本文中，我们报告了一种使用混合溶剂电解质热力学模型预测的使用单乙醇胺和二氧化碳回收REE的方法。验证实验表明，滤液中含有氯化单乙醇胺的Nd ³⁺作为其正常碳酸盐的回收率> 99％。额外的实验还表明，La ³⁺和Y ³⁺水溶液的回收率> 99％作为它们各自的正常碳酸盐。这些发现表明，可以使用热力学仿真引擎来减少开发新的高产率REE回收装置操作所需的经验驱动实验的数量，该操作适用于工业流中典型的浓缩和稀水溶液。