Recovery of Rare Earth Metals from Waste Fluorescent Lights

Europium and yttrium (Y) are critical materials required for light-emitting diode (LED), florescent lamp (FL), cell phone screen and flat panel display production. Nearly, the entire worldwide production of europium (Eu) is sourced as a minor constituent recovered from mining bastnäsite, monazite ore or ion-absorbing clays in China. Ongoing supply risks, environmental legacies from previous operations and the drive toward monetizing end-of-life (EoL) waste streams that otherwise are destined for landfills are the inspirational basis for this chapter that is focused on rare earth element (REE) recycling from lighting phosphors. A recently developed mild acid-leach and reduction-precipitation process is described for high recovery of Eu as europium(II) sulfate (EuSO4) and coproduction of Y from waste lamp phosphor dust.