It is reported that the project of “Research and Industrialization of Continuous Production Process of Carbon Dioxide of Light Rare Earth Carbonate of North Rare Earth” was formally recognized as “the overall technology reached the international advanced level” by the Chinese Rare Earth Industry Association and was successfully put into production. This also marks the first time that my country has realized the continuous and automated production of rare earth carbonate precipitation in the rare earth industry.
In the industrial production of rare earths, light rare earth carbonates are intermediate raw materials for a variety of rare earth products, and their uses are very wide. With the gradual expansion of the industrial scale after the integration of the rare earth industry, the problems of discontinuous operation and large amount of ammonia nitrogen wastewater in the intermittent precipitation process that used ammonium bicarbonate to prepare crystalline rare earth carbonate have become very prominent, restricting light rare earth carbonate products Further development.
Northern Rare Earth R&D team independently developed continuous precipitation of light rare earth carbonate, mixed precipitation agent of ammonium bicarbonate and ammonia and automatic control technology, and solved the large water consumption and waste water production caused by single-stage and intermittent production through technology integration Large quantities, large fluctuations in product quality, low concentration of precipitant, and low level of automation throughout the production process.
Experts mainly studied the effects of continuous precipitation process conditions such as reaction order, reaction temperature, precipitant distribution method, mixed precipitant ratio on the quality of light rare earth carbonate products. At the same time, the effects of process equipment such as solution purification, stirring form, continuous filtration, etc. on the quality of light rare earth carbonate products were studied.
Based on serious research, the team started with precipitant configuration and purification equipment, planned and verified the overall control integration, and based on this, designed and built a continuous precipitation production line with raw material configuration purification system, constant pressure feed system and lanthanum carbonate. The project has achieved 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, 29% reduction in electricity consumption, and 40% reduction in waste water. The technological achievements formed by the project have been successfully applied in many large-scale rare earth companies, saving annual production costs by more than 100 million yuan.
