Description of experimental protocol used to characterize the effectiveness of regenerating ligand-based adsorption media through the addition of ligands when media were previously depleted of ligands during use. Results of the effectiveness of this regeneration are also described.

"Loading Capacity and Dilute Nitric Acid Rinse of Diglycolamide Resin for the Recovery of Transplutonium and Rare Earth Elements from Mark-18A Targets" N,N,N′,N′-tetraoctyldiglycolamide (TODGA) as a resin (“DGA resin”) produced by Eichrom Technologies will be used by Savannah River National Laboratory for the extraction of trivalent actinides and rare earth elements with the intent of recovering Cm and Am from dissolved irradiated 242Pu Mark-18A targets in 7 to 9 M nitric acid. The extracted constituents will be recovered as an oxide by direct thermal decomposition of the loaded resin followed by calcination of the resultant residue. The characteristics of DGA resin with non-radiological feed simulant representative of the anticipated feed in the Mark-18A process, with Sm and Nd as surrogates for Cm and Am, respectively, including breakthrough point and saturation capacity were evaluated in this work. Additionally, this work examined the losses from the loaded resin by rinsing the resin bed with dilute acid to reduce the nitrate concentration in the resin bed prior to thermal decomposition operations to improve the safety posture of the process. A resin loading profile was developed, and the resin was determined to have a trivalent metal saturation capacity of 74 μmol/mL resin under the experimental conditions evaluated. Following a wash of the loaded resin bed with fresh 8 M HNO3, the trivalent metals retained were reduced to 68 μmol/mL resin, which represents the practical capacity of the resin for the Mark-18A process. Lighter lanthanides breakthrough the resin well before the saturation capacity is reached. Rinsing the saturated resin bed with 0.26 M HNO3 was found to result in a rapid reduction in retention of rare earth elements by the resin. After 2.8 bed volumes of dilute acid rinse, the mean resin bed free acid concentration was reduced to 0.28 M and 3.1 bed volumes of dilute acid rinse resulted in a reduction of the cumulative rare earth element retention to 52 μmol/mL of resin.

LBT (lanthanide binding tag) cells were grown overnight in LB media with 0.05% Amp. 1:100 subculture taken from overnights, grown for 2 hours. LBT was induced with 0.002% arabinose added for 3 hours. REE adsorption was done by combining 350 ul (0.25% 1M MES, 12.5 uM Tb, and 12.5 uM La or Cu in sterile DI water) and 350 ul (LBT cells with OD = 1 in 10 mM MES), reacted for approx. 30 min. Following adsorption, citrate and bicarbonate solutions were used in desorption to recover rare earth from cell surface, and to further separate REE from non-REEs. The samples were then centrifuged and a fraction of the supernatant was collected for ICP-MS analysis.

The data includes the membrane properties and specifications used for multi-configuration membrane distillation desalination. In this study, membranes from CLARCOR, 3M, and Aquastill are tested in counter-current, co-current and air-gap configurations at Colorado School of Mines (CSM), Advanced Water technology Center ( Aqwatech) laboratories. In the data sheets: The "theoretical" worksheet, contains steady-state values of the experimental runs and also provides several calculated values. The "Specifications" worksheet contains the inputs to the experiment. The "Data" spreadsheet contains the entire set of data and the rest of the sheets "20-40", "20-45", ...etc., contain individual portions of the data with variation of feed temperatures.

This dataset contains annual allocations of dewatered solids or biosolids from a specific dewatering facility to a specific management practice site in dry metric tons. 'Dewatered solids' are the solids remaining in digested sludge after removal of water in a dewatering facility. 'Biosolids', per the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is treated sewage sludge that meets the EPA pollutant, pathogen & vector attraction requirements for land application and surface disposal, and the DEP has certified it with the EPA as such. Biosolids in this case are also dewatered. Depending on the material being managed (i.e., dewatered solids or biosolids), a 'management practice site' may be one of the following: 1) a third party vendor treatment facility (e.g., composting, dryer, alkaline treatment) that converts the dewatered solids into biosolids for beneficial reuse in various land application practices (e.g., agricultural land application, reclamation site application) or for distribution/marketing as a soil amendment or fertilizer; 2) a direct land application site for agricultural use (typically a farm); or 3) a landfill. The dataset includes the pathogen (disease-causing organism) reduction and vector (an animal capable of transmitting disease such as flies or rodents) attraction reduction options employed as part of the treatment and the type of biosolids class produced, if applicable. There are different biosolids class types, each having specified treatment requirements for pollutants, pathogens and vector attraction reduction, as well as general requirements and management practices, For more information regarding biosolids compliance, treatment, uses and class types please refer to: https://www.epa.gov/biosolids.

An important consideration for the process design is cell immobilization-enabled flow-through operation. Large-scale biosorption relies on cells that are immobilized on a supporting substrate and used to 'attract' metal ions. Cell immobilization allows easy separation of the feed solution and REEs that are attached to the cell surface. It also allows continuous operation without the need of energy-intensive centrifugation or filtration. Lightweight, high surface area, low cost (~$200/m3) high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic disks are used as cell carriers for biofilm formation.

Experimental results from several studies exploring the impact of pH and acid volume on the stripping of rare earth elements (REEs) loaded onto ligand-based media via an active column. The REEs in this experiment were loaded onto the media through exposure to a simulated geothermal brine with known mineral concentrations. The data include the experiment results, rare earth element concentrations, and the experimental parameters varied.