Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal

Re:Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates f... by logfromblammo on Monday March 12, 2018 @12:22PM (#16569198)

I could see an argument for coal used to enrich soil for agriculture, if there were a way to economically remove all the toxic metals from it. Urine and bone meal would round it out.

It could be a carbon source for a new type of terra preta.

It would even be useful for the high-sulfur coals.

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Re:Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates f... by vanderZwan on Monday March 12, 2018 @02:11PM (#16570123)

Both energy and resource-wise it's much cheaper to just grow plants and char them. And you probably end up with side-benefits from growing plants in the process.

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Re:Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates f... by logfromblammo on Monday March 12, 2018 @03:32PM (#16570725)

What if one of your goals is to buy votes of otherwise-unemployed coal miners?

If the coal has no economic uses for energy production, but the mining has some reason to happen anyway, where the coal itself becomes a by-product, turning it into agricultural soil wouldn't be entirely horrible. The heavy metals would probably have to be removed before disposing of it anyway.

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