Occurrence forms of rare earth elements in coal and coal gangue and their combustion products

Distribution of rare earth elements (REEs) in six speciations extracted from coal and coal gangue and their combustion products (slag and fly ash) generated by three different power plants in China were determined by sequential extraction procedure combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry method. The results show that the REEs mainly occurred as acid soluble and silicate & aluminosilicate fraction, e.g., approximately 42.54% and 45.62% in coal gangue, 32.85% and 57.13% in lignite, and 18.10% and 75.46% in bituminous coal, respectively. However, REEs in the combustion products were mainly presented in silicate & aluminosilicate fraction regardless of coal or coal gangue, reaching up to approximately 80% of the total REEs content. During combustion, around 36%, 23%, and 5% from the other five fractions (water soluble, ion-exchangeable, acid soluble, organic, and sulfide) were transformed to silicate & aluminosilicate fraction from coal gangue, lignite, and bituminous coal, respectively. In the case of coal or coal gangue, the amount of each REEs in the same extracted fraction was different, but the distribution trend of REEs from La to Lu in each fraction was followed in the same rule. In the case of slag and fly ash generated from coal or coal gangue, distribution of REEs from La to Lu in each fraction showed the different trend between fly ash and slag. This was due to the fly ash exposed in flue gas system was much longer than the time for slag formation.