Environmentally hazardous coal waste diminished by citric acid:
Process to extract rare earth's from coal ash in an environmentally friendly way. Turns waste into a resource.
Update:
This one deserves a bit more discussion. The molten-salt reactor posts that I did here uncovered some basic information about this very thing.
The first fact about it was that there is MORE energy in the coal ash than what was obtained by burning the coal. I once mentioned this a coal industry guy when I was doing Uber back in Houston. He was surprised to hear that. The fact is that coal has a significant amount of thorium in it.
The second fact was that wherever you find thorium, you also find rare earth elements. It is a big waste to put the materials back when mining for something else. This is actually being done, and it is DUMB.
Therefore, this discovery is of the utmost importance on a number of levels. On the basic level, the waste need not be a waste. On another level, we need better management of our government. It is the government that forces DUMB decisions upon the rest of us, and this is yet another example of that.
People have too much regard for politicians and bureaucrats. This was not always so. It becomes so only at our hazard. They don't do a lot of good, and they are capable of doing a lot of harm.
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