SusChEM: Collaborative Research: Coal Ash Wastes as a Resource for Critical and Rare Elements

Coal-combustion products (CCPs) are potential sources of rare earth elements and valuable metals. A thorough understanding of the mode of occurrence of trace elements in coals is fundamental to the understanding of the mode of occurrence of the trace metals in the CCPs and, subsequently, to the extraction of valuable elements from the CCPS. In this project, both the coal feed to power plants and the resulting CCPs will be evaluated and bench-scale extraction of the elements from CCPs will be conducted. This project builds upon successful collaborations between the University of Kentucky CAER and Duke University’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.