EPA P3

The EPA P3 is a student design competition that aims to develop solutions for a sustainable future. P3 stands for People, Prosperity and the Planet. Design teams from universities throughout the country will work on projects that improve air quality, provide for clean and safe water, sustainable and healthy communities and chemical safety in order to promote  prosperity, protect the planet, and benefit people. 




Our Team and Facilities

Dr. Wencai Zhang (PI), Qi Li, Baxter Jones

Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering,

Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia

Dr. Hassan Amini (Co-PI), Emmy Muhoza, Kayla Gibson 

Department of Mining Engineering,

West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia


Dr. Haibo Huang (Co-PI), Dr. Qing Jin, Katy Lobeda

Department of Food Science and Technology,

Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia

Mineral Processing Lab at VT

Food Processing Lab at VT

Mineral Processing Lab at WVU

On-campus Laboratories

Goal Statement

The goal of this project is to convert food waste into value-added, renewable, and environmentally friendly organic acids. These acids will be used for the recovery of  Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from coal refuse and bastnaesite ore. 

Technical Route

Fermentation

Food waste is a growing problem in the current age as 40% of food ends up being wasted throughout the supply chain. The failure to address the problem of food waste could lead to severe environmental problems in addition to depleting both resources and money. One potential method for utilizing the food waste is to convert the food waste into lactic acid which serves a role in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and the biodegradable packaging material polylactic acid. The goal of this research is to optimize the production of lactic acid from food waste using Lactobacillus pentosus. 


Below is the mass balance when lactic acid was produced by Lactobacillus pentosus when the optimized nitrogen source concentration, initial sugar concentration, and pH were utilized. This study will advance the sustainable utilization of waste materials generated in the agricultural and food system to produce lactic acid which can then purified for REEs mining. 


Flotation

Rare earth elements (REEs) production in the U.S. is partially limited by high chemical costs, leading to 100% net import reliance for meeting the domestic needs. This causes underlying threats to the U.S. economy development, due to the crucial roles that REEs play in renewable energy and high technology. Organic acids produced in the fermentation step of the project can be used to improve the recovery of REEs from bastnaesite ores. Which is one of the two of the most promising REE resources in the U.S. 


Flotation tests are performed to recover bastnaesite (REE) from the gangue (unwanted) minerals. The recovery is optimized by changing parameters in the solution preparation such as pH. The overall goal of this process is to conclude if organic acids are effective inhibitors for minimizing the flotation recovery of calcite (gangue mineral) while maximizing bastnaesite recovery.

Leaching

Coal refuse has environmental complications when it needs to be disposed of, and our novel approach allows the refuse to be recycled into the production of REEs.  The leaching process can be seen below in the leaching flowchart:

This has multiple factors that can be optimized to improve the REEs recovery, such as: temperature, acid concentration, acid type and solid liquid ratio. The goal of the leaching research is to determine the highest recovery of REEs through optimization of the above factors.  As seen on the right, this is the bench scale leaching apparatus to test all of the optimization factors.


Educating the Community on our Plan

Our short term goals on educating the community will be executed in the Fall of 2021, our goals are: