Lan Huong Tran

• PhD
• Research Associate at National Institute of Scientific Research

Discarded smartphones represent a valuable source of rare earths (REE), base metals and precious metals. This study focussed on the optimisation of three-stage selective leaching conditions for REE, copper and precious metals (Au and Ag), respectively, contained in printed circuit boards (PCBs) found in end-of-life smartphones. The effects of sever...

The aim of this project is to develop and evaluate the economic performance of a complete process for recovering nickel, cobalt, and rare earths (REEs) from nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery waste. The main elements contained in the battery powder are Ni (523 g/kg), La (58 g/kg), Co (39 g/kg), Zn (21 g/kg), Nd (19 g/kg), Sm (19 g/kg) and Ce (14...

The production of lithium from spodumene ores generates huge amounts of residues mainly composed of aluminosilicates. The main objective of the present study was to synthesize NaX zeolites with good ion-exchange capacity from these aluminosilicate residues, without using the fusion step or chemically modifying their initial Si/Al ratio. A physico-c...

Technological innovations have led to two phenomena: the unprecedented consumption of mineral resources, including critical and strategic elements, and the generation of disproportionate amounts of electronic waste (e-waste). As a result, e-waste has become the fastest growing component of the municipal solid waste stream [1]. With a near doubling...

The rechargeable battery market has almost doubled in 15 years. Regardless of the type of batteries, their limited lifespan means that sooner or later they will constitute a mass of waste whose management is problematic as their content is high in elements and metals of high economic interest, but also toxic to the environment. This project is to o...

The production of lithium from spodumene ores generates huge amounts of residue mainly composed of aluminosilicate. The main objective of this study was to compare the performances of three different processes to produce zeolites from aluminosilicates residues originating from lithium extraction. Zeolites were synthesized using: i) a conventional h...

Fluorite (calcium fluoride—CaF2), also known as fluorspar, is an industrial mineral used in metallurgy, hydrofluoric acid production, and ceramics manufacturing. Based on the results from a previous study, a low-grade fluorspar by-product (20.0% CaF2) originating from the exploitation of a rare earth carbonatite deposit can be improved to 75.4% by...

The recovery of indium (In) from spent LCD screens represents an avenue of interest to meet the growing market demand for this strategic metal. The main purpose of the present study was to evaluate the efficiencies of nine ion-exchange resins to selectively recover indium from synthetic and real leachates produced from the recycling of spent LCD sc...

To control and decrease the amount of greenhouse gases in the environment, the process of carbonation is attracting particular attention. Via carbonation, it is possible to control carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by using mining residues. This study focuses on the precipitation step of aqueous indirect carbonation of serpentine mining wastes using t...

Fluorspar, also known as fluorite (CaF2), is commercially important in metallurgical (e.g. used as slag viscosity modifier), ceramic (e.g. used to manufacture glass), and chemical industries (e.g. production of commercial HF). In the present study, a process has been developed to produce a ceramic grade fluorspar by-product from a rare earth elemen...

Mining residues are usually stockpiled because of their understudied physico-chemical properties and of their abundance, which make their valorization challenging. In this work, a cold-bonding granulation apparatus was built in order to transform a mining residue sludge from an apatite ore, into artificial aggregates suitable for use in civil engin...

Fluorspar, also known as fluorite, is commonly used as a raw material to produce fluorinated chemicals (e.g., hydrofluoric acid) or as a flux to lower the melting temperature in steel production. In the present study, a process was developed to produce a fluorite concentrate from a rare earth element (REE) bearing carbonatite. After an initial flot...

The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has increased by almost 50% since the industrial revolution. As the global economy might still be dependent on fossil fuels for the next decades, unprecedented measures will be required to avoid further irreversible consequences of potential global warming. Carbon capture, storage, and utilization offer a bro...

In this study, a new approach to predicting the ability of a hydrometallurgical process to simultaneously remove metal(loid)s, pentachlorophenol (PCP), and polychlorodibenzodioxins and furans (PCDD/F) from contaminated soil is developed. The remediation process consisted of attrition and alkaline leaching steps applied for the coarse (> 0.250 mm) a...

An innovative, efficient, and economically viable process for the recycling of spent alkaline batteries is presented herein. The developed process allows for the selective recovery of Zn and Mn metals present in alkaline batteries. The hydrometallurgical process consists of a physical pre-treatment step for separating out the metal powder containin...

Spent liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are a secondary source of precious/strategic metals, including indium (In). The present study involved optimizing the solubilization of this strategic element from samples of indium tin oxide (ITO) glass prepared from LCD screens of computer monitors and laptop screens. The influence of operating conditions on I...

Industrial activities lead to the contamination of large amounts of soils polluted by both inorganic and organic compounds, which are difficult to treat due to different chemical properties. The efficiency of a decontamination process developed to simultaneously remove mixed contamination of industrial soils was evaluated at the pilot-scale, as wel...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of soil parameters (total inorganic and organic carbon, pH, particle size distribution, initial contaminant levels) on the performance of a leaching process to remove As, Cr, Cu, pentachlorophenol (PCP), and polychlorodibenzo-dioxins and furans (PCDD/F) from the fine fractions (< 0.250 mm) o...

This study focused on the selective recovery of zinc (Zn) from a leaching solution emerging from a sulfuric acid leaching process applied to unsorted spent batteries. Precipitation and solvent extraction were investigated. According to the results, solvent extraction using Cyanex 272 allowed for the selective removal of Zn from the solution contain...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the soil parameters (particle size, initial contamination level, etc.) on the performances of an attrition process to remove As, Cr, Cu, pentachlorophenol (PCP) and dioxins and furans (PCDD/F). Five different contaminated soils were wet-sieved to isolate five soil fractions (< 0.250, 0.25...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of a counter-current attrition process (CCAP) over 15 cycles for removing metals, pentachlorophenol (PCP) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and -furans (PCDDF) from contaminated soil. The CCAP, applied to the 1–4-mm fraction of a contaminated soil, included five attrition steps (pulp den...

The treatment of soils contaminated with organic compounds, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), by attrition produced large amounts of highly concentrated attrition sludge (PAH – attrition concentrate – PAC). This paper studied the performance of an oxidation process using potassium permanganate (KMnO4) to degrade PAHs that were initia...

This study was conducted to determine the optimal conditions for PAH degradation from highly contaminated attrition sludge (PAC) using a Fenton process or successive permanganate (KMnO4) oxidation and Fenton processes. The following parameters were studied to optimize the Fenton oxidation process: the amounts of reactants based on the stoichiometri...

This investigation presents the development of a waste batteries recycling technology, that could lead to the minimization of waste discharged and contamination problems and to the depletion of natural resources. This study mainly focused on the recovery of metals from a pregnant leach solution (PLS) obtained from a sulphuric leaching process appli...

The objective of this study was to evaluate, at a pilot scale, the performance of an attrition process for removing As, Cr, Cu, pentachlorophenol (PCP) and polychlorodibenzodioxins and furans (PCDDF) from a 1-4 mm soil fraction. A Box-Behnken experimental design was utilized to evaluate the influence of several parameters (temperature, surfactant c...

The Fenton oxidation using phenanthrene (Phe), fluoranthene (Fle) and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) as representative Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminants was examined. The effect of the H2O2 concentration, the temperature and the competition between PAHs in different solutions (methanol, surfactant and quartz) was investigated. The Fenton o...

In this study, the effect of different flotation operating variables, such as pH, pulp density, collector concentration, impeller speed, frother concentration, and air flow rate, on selective flotation of heavy metals, especially Cu, from fine dredged sediment has been evaluated. Parameter optimization was done using the single parameter at a time...

Purpose This study addresses the feasibility of a flotation technique, using a lab-scale flotation cell, to simultaneously remove both metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from fine sediment fractions (<250 μm) that are potentially contaminated with copper (Cu). Materials and methods A multiple flotation process with three consecutive flota...

The decomposition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a creosote oily solution and in synthetic solutions containing naphthalene and pyrene was investigated in the presence of an amphoteric surfactant using electrooxidation by comparison to Fenton oxidation process. Electrolysis was carried out using a parallelepipedic electrolytic 1.5-L cell co...

The electrooxidation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in solution was investigated. Most of the PAHs compounds are toxic and hardly biodegradable, so that a chemical or physicochemical treatment is required. In this paper, we reported treatment of synthetic creosote oily effluent (COE) containing several PAHs by using Ti/ IrO2 and Ti/ Sn...

The performance of a two-stage process combining extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with an amphoteric surfactant (CAS) followed by electro-oxidation of PAH-foam concentrate was studied for the decontamination of aluminum industry wastes (AIW) and polluted soils. The PAH suspensions extracted from AIW and soils were treated in a...

In this study, expanded titanium (Ti) covered with ruthenium oxide (RuO(2)) electrode was used to anodically oxidize polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in creosote solution. Synthetic creosote-oily solution (COS) was prepared with distilled water and a commercial creosote solution in the presence of an amphoteric surfactant; Cocamidopropylhydro...

A coupling between column liquid chromatography (LC) and atomic fluorescence spectrometry was developed for arsenic speciation. After separation, the compounds are oxidised on-line by UV irradiation, volatilised by hydride-generation and carried to the detector by a stream of argon. A combination of anion-exchange and hydrophobic interactions in a...