Hollow fibre supported liquid membrane based dysprosium separation by employing PC88A as carrier

Rare-earth elements (REE) are a group of 17 elements which include 15 lanthanides along with yttrium and scandium owing to their similar chemical characteristics. In the present work Dysprosium (Dy) separation from aqueous stream has been investigated by using HFM module in supported liquid membrane mode. PC88A an organophosphonic acid is used as carrier solvent to study the transportation behaviour of Dy from feed side to strip side in recirculation mode of operation. Effect of process parameters such as aqueous feed acidity, Dy concentration in feed, organic extractant concentration, strip phase acidity and effect of competing metal ion on dysprosium separation from feed solution were studied. The simultaneous extraction and stripping of Dy by 0.5 M PC88A as carrier extractant in HFSLM mode for an aqueous feed phase consisting of 1 g/L Dy was investigated. The results obtained in the present study indicate that hollow fibre membrane module not only offers a better separation for Dy from the mixture of lighter rare earths but also have the potential to be up scaled for rare earth separation and purification from scrap and lean sources