Uranium Extraction

Several companies extracted uranium as yellow cake from phosphoric acid until the price dropped below the cost of production in the early 1990s.

Now uranium prices have rebounded and nuclear energy is considered by many one of the best alternatives to meet climate change targets and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

In conjunction with K-Technologies, KEMWorks offers the conventional solvent extraction (SX) process using DEPA-TOPO that became the standard in the 1980s. We have also developed two Advanced Technologies that offer significant reductions in capital and operating costs, and eliminates the disadvantages of the kerosene carrier used in the SX process.

K-Technologies operates a pilot plant near Lakeland where we can test your phosphoric acid and provide an estimate of capital and operating costs for any of these three technologies.

Rare Earth Elements

The supply of rare earth elements (REE) s is considered to be at high risk because global production is concentrated in a few countries some of which have relatively low political stability ratings.

Depending on the rock source and processing technique, wet process phosphoric acid contains varying quantities of REE, and other valuable strategic metals, including  vanadium and uranium. There is a significant potential for the recovery of rare earths, and other valuable materials from wet process phosphoric acid.

Yttrium and rare earths can be extracted using a combination of several techniques developed by K-Technologies including precipitation, continuous ion-exchange, and continuous chromatographic separation. The technique is particularly attractive when combined with uranium extraction. Potential revenue from REE extracted from phosphoric can be significant.

Fluoride products

During the production of phosphoric acid fluoride gases are evolved that may be recovered as fluorosilicic acid (FSA or H2SiF6). Read about FSA Recovery

In conjunction with K-Technologies, Inc. (K-Tech) we can offer a range of technologies to convert FSA to value-added fluoride products, such as anhydrous hydrofluoric acid (AHF) and aluminum fluoride (AlF3). In addition, K-Tech has expertise in the manufacture and marketing of specialty fluoride products, such as fluoride single and double salts, e.g. sodium fluoride and bifluoride, potassium fluoride and bifluoride, potassium fluoroborate, potassium fluotitanate and potassium fluorozirconate.