Recovering germanium from coal ash by chlorination with ammonium chloride

A new process of enriching germanium from coal ash was developed. The process involves in mixing the coal ash and ammonium chloride and then roasting the mixture to produce germanium chloride that is then absorbed by dilute hydrochloric acid and hydrolyzed to germanium oxide. The germanium recovery reached to 80.2% at the optimum condition: mass ratio of NH4Cl/coal ash is 0.15, roasting temperature 400℃ and roasting time 90 min.