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Minerals
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Separation Chemistry of Uranium
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Separation Chemistry of Uranium

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2021) | Viewed by 4951

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Eugen Andreiadis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CEA, Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission, Science and Technology Institute for Circular Economy of Low Carbon Energy, 30207 Bagnols-sur-Ceze, France
Interests: coordination and separation chemistry; particularly for the design of novel extracting systems; leading to the development of efficient separation processes for the nuclear fuel cycle and the recovery of strategic elements

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Uranium is an essential resource for the production of carbon-free electricity by nuclear reactors, a key advantage in the fight against global warming. The availability of efficient uranium extraction and separation processes has a direct impact on the ability to sustain the future demand from nuclear power plants in the coming decades, in line with the ambitious scenarios elaborated by international organizations.

Several processes have been developed, most of them being based on uranium separation by solvent or solid-phase extraction. However, numerous challenges remain to be explored, such as in improving uranium extraction and selectivity towards impurities at the front-end of the nuclear cycle, simplifying and increasing efficiency of back-end operations with respect to fission products, or developing extractant systems and processes adapted to low-level secondary resources such as phosphate ores or seawater. 

This Special Issue aims to present recent scientific and technological advances and innovative solutions pertaining to this field, with a focus on chemical separation. Insights related to the following aspects are particularly relevant:

  • Design of novel extractant molecules and materials;
  • Combined experimental and theoretical approaches;
  • Uranium recovery from secondary resources;
  • Nuclear waste reprocessing and other nuclear applications;
  • Flowsheet simulation and process modeling;
  • Analytical developments.

We invite experts in these areas to share their research via open access in this Special Issue and thus contribute the field progress. Papers from both academia and industry are welcome.

Dr. Eugen Andreiadis
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Primary and secondary resources
  • Waste reprocessing
  • Hydrometallurgy
  • Extractive metallurgy
  • Solvent extraction
  • Solid-phase extraction
  • Process modeling and simulation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2496 KiB  
Article
Bonding Behavior and Mechanism of U(VI) by Chemically Modified Deinococcus radiodurans
by Xiaoqin Nie, Faqin Dong, Mingxue Liu, Wencai Cheng, Congcong Ding, Liang Bian and Shiyong Sun
Minerals 2021, 11(10), 1108; https://doi.org/10.3390/min11101108 - 09 Oct 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1710
Abstract
The goal of this study is to understand the role of various functional groups on the cell surface when the microorganisms are exposed to uranium (U(VI)). The biomass of Deinococcus radiodurans was subjected to chemical treatments to modify the carboxyl (-C=O), amino (-NH [...] Read more.
The goal of this study is to understand the role of various functional groups on the cell surface when the microorganisms are exposed to uranium (U(VI)). The biomass of Deinococcus radiodurans was subjected to chemical treatments to modify the carboxyl (-C=O), amino (-NH2), phosphate (-PO2−), and hydroxyl (-OH) groups, as well as the lipid fraction. The behavior and process of U(VI) biosorption by Deinococcus radiodurans were ascertained, followed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses. Carboxyl esterification and amino methylation deteriorated the removal efficiency by 8.0% and 15.5%, respectively, while lipid extraction, phosphate esterification, and hydroxyl methylation improved the removal efficiency by 11.7%, 8.7%, and 4.1%, respectively. The kinetic results revealed that uranium biosorption behavior by the raw and chemically modified biomass fitted well with the model of pseudo-second-order kinetic (R2 = 0.9949~0.9998). FTIR and SEM-EDS indicated that uranium initially bound with the raw and chemically modified Deinococcus radiodurans, which was probably controlled by ion exchange at the first stage, followed by complexation with the -C=O and -NH2 groups, which especially prefer to bond with P and O atoms on the -PO2− group. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Separation Chemistry of Uranium)
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10 pages, 1360 KiB  
Article
Two-Step Solvent Extraction of Radioactive Elements and Rare Earths from Estonian Phosphorite Ore Using Nitrated Aliquat 336 and Bis(2-ethylhexyl) Phosphate
by Silvester Jürjo, Liis Siinor, Carolin Siimenson, Päärn Paiste and Enn Lust
Minerals 2021, 11(4), 388; https://doi.org/10.3390/min11040388 - 05 Apr 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2506
Abstract
Estonian phosphorite ore contains trace amounts of rare earth elements (REEs), many other d-metals, and some radioactive elements. Rare earth elements, Mo, V, etc. might be economically exploitable, while some radioactive and toxic elements should be removed before any other downstream processing for [...] Read more.
Estonian phosphorite ore contains trace amounts of rare earth elements (REEs), many other d-metals, and some radioactive elements. Rare earth elements, Mo, V, etc. might be economically exploitable, while some radioactive and toxic elements should be removed before any other downstream processing for environmental and nutritional safety reasons. All untreated hazardous elements remain in landfilled waste in much higher concentration than they occur naturally. To resolve this problem U, Th, and Tl were removed from phosphorite ore at first using liquid extraction. In the next step, REE were isolated from raffinate. Nitrated Aliquat 336 (A336[NO3]) and Bis(2-ethylhexyl) Phosphate (D2EHPA) were used in liquid extraction for comparison. An improved method for exclusive separation of radioactive elements and REEs from phosphorite ore in 2-steps has been developed, exploiting liquid extraction at different pH values. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Separation Chemistry of Uranium)
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