Dissolution and recovery of beryllium from beryl using a novel wet process with microwave heating

Because a large amount of beryllium is loaded into fusion reactors as a neutron multiplier, it is important to stably secure the beryllium resource, i.e., beryl ore (Be3Al2Si6O18), in order to realize fusion energy. The conventional method for extracting beryllium from beryl involves high-temperature processing steps, which may increase the cost and environmental risk. In view of this, a new wet process using microwaves at significantly lower temperatures was proposed. This study investigated the factors that enable the new wet process to achieve lower temperatures compared to the conventional method, and confirmed through tests that a chemical reaction occurs between beryl and NaOH at approximately 200 °C during the pretreatment process. It was found that this chemical reaction plays an important role in reducing the temperature of the process. The separation tests were performed to separate Al and Si from beryl minerals using this wet process, and the optimum conditions for each separation process were determined. Beryllium oxide and beryllium hydroxide were successfully recovered from the solution after Al and Si separation.