Resource-saving and environmental protection in nuclear-grade zirconium and hafnium production

Author:

Abstract

The development of efficient and environmentally friendly technological processes for processing zircon concentrate is an urgent problem in the technology of producing reactor-pure zirconium and hafnium used in nuclear power. The review presents the environmental, technical and economic characteristics of zircon decomposition processes using existing industrial technologies and provides data on the environmental safety of each technology. It is shown that current industrial technologies do not meet the criteria of sustainable development and allow emissions of toxic reagents into the environment. New applications of particularly pure zirconium and hafnium compounds which have emerged in recent decades, with impurity content of 10-3–10-5%, require less corrosive reagents than chlorine and fluorine, new resource-saving processes and equipment. Today, technical zirconium oxide with a purity of 98% is the main industrial product of zircon processing, but it allows for losses of hafnium, scandium and silicon. This is equivalent to financial losses of over USD 150 million per year. Based on the analysis of promising halogen-free technologies, a new integrated zircon processing technology is proposed which allows producing scarce hafnium, scandium and silicon compounds along with reactor-pure zirconium and its high-purity chemical compounds. The chemicals consumed in the zircon processing process are utilized in the production of mineral fertilizers, eliminating environmental pollution. The use of the highly efficient refining extraction process in a nitric acid environment using centrifugal extractors with an available tributilphosphate extractant allows us to obtain reactor metals with a purity of 99.95%. The production of high-purity zirconium, hafnium, scandium and silicon oxides meets the demand for non-nuclear products, which expands the volume of integrated zircon processing and meets the growing market demand for new functional materials. The integrated approach to zircon processing can reduce the cost of zircon by producing by-products, recycling consumed reagents and eliminating non-recyclable solid and liquid waste. This will ensure environmental protection even with relatively small volumes of reactor-pure metal production.

Publisher

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Co. LTD Ukrinformnauka) (Publications)

Reference44 articles.

1. Krivda, Ye. V. and Gurov, D. I. (2017), "Analysis of the Ukraine's energy industry and its strategic development", Suchasní problemi yekonomíki í pídpriêmnitstvo, vol. 20, pp. 5-12.

2. Azhazha, V. M., Rolik, I. L., Kozhevnikova, M. F., Levenets, V. V. and Shchur, A. A. (2007), "Environmental characteristics of the production of zirconium, its alloys and rolled products for the nuclear fuel cycle of Ukraine", Ekologiya i promyshlennost', no. 4, pp. 44-50.

3. Li, S., Che, Y., Shu, Y., He, J., Song, J. and Yang, B. (2021), "Preparation of Zirconium Metal by Electrolysis", Journal of The Electrochemical Society, no. 168(6), pp. 062508, https://doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ac0996

4. Shumakova, N. I. and Protsenko, Z. M. (2016), "Electrochemical deposition of zirconium on substrates with different materials", 2016 International Conference on Nanomaterials: Application and Properties (NAP), pp. 01NTF24-1. https://doi.org/10.1016/10.1109/NAP.2016.7757257

5. Xu, L., Xiao, Y., Van Sandwijk, A., Xu, Q. and Yang, Y. (2015), "Production of nuclear grade zirconium: A review", Journal of Nuclear Materials, no. 466, pp. 21-28, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2015.07.010

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3