Separation of Lanthanides from Belitung Silica Sand Using Roasting and Sulfuric Acid Leaching Wuwuh Wijang Prihandini (a*), Eny Kusrini (a), Karina Ayuningtyas(a)
a) Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia
*wuwuh.wijang[at]ui.ac.id
Abstract
Silica sand or quartz sand is the type of sand that comes from igneous rock in the form of sediment along with other mineral products that have weathered due to air and water activity. These silica sands are generally used as raw materials in the glass industry and the building materials. One of the silica sand producing areas is Belitung Island, which has a broad availability and potentially become the source of raw material for lanthanide compounds. Lanthanides are compounds that have high economic value because of their use in various industrial sectors. However, these compounds are associated-minerals which its content in the main minerals is relatively small. The process of separating lanthanides by solid-liquid extraction method (leaching) using acid has been widely studied but has not produced an optimal technology yet, so the additional steps is needed to separate the lanthanides. In this research, the lanthanide separation process consists of silica sand roasting and solid-liquid extraction (leaching) using sulfuric acid, with variations in the temperature of the roasting process (300 oC and 500 oC and 700 oC), and variations in the concentration of sulfuric acid solution
