<p>The combined vacuum refining-plasma zone melting method (VR-PZM) was designed to remove the main impurities Ca, Mg, Mn, Al, Fe, Cu and Si in scandium, which were difficult to be removed by the traditional distillation. The removal efficiency, energy consumption and migration laws of the impurities were investigated. The results showed that the contents of Ca, Mg, Mn were less than 10&#xa0;ppm after the vacuum refining, attributed to the much higher evaporation coefficients. By the calculation of the equilibrium distribution coefficient <i>k</i>_<i>0</i>, this research found that the <i>k</i>_<i>0</i> of Al, Fe, Cu and Si were 0.4777, 0.1838, 0.0732 and 0.1707, respectively. Al, Fe, Cu and Si could be effectively removed by PZM. And the purity of Sc was increased from 99.7801 to 99.9949 wt%. On the basis of vacuum refining, the PZM technology with the advantages of high melting temperature and strong disturbance was innovatively applied to purify Sc in this paper. The results showed that the stubborn impurities Al, Fe, Cu and Si were enriched at the tail end, and the enrichment degree increases with the increase of zone melting times. Additionally, due to the low energy consumption of PZM, the energy consumption of the VR-PZM was only 1/3 of that of the traditional distillation. This combined method is efficient and sustainable.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>