Per MIT Technology Review, China dominates the market for rare earth elements (REE), but the U.S. is racing to catch up. Reducing fossil fuels and adopting lower carbon technologies are the best options for addressing climate change. Access to REE, key ingredients in many of these technologies, will help determine which countries meet their climate goals.
Demand for REE is expected to reach 3-7x current levels by 2040, but supply is only on track to double. New supply is needed. Opening new mines can take decades, so focus is on increasing access to secondary and unconventional sources.
One potential source is coal ash, the waste from burning coal at power plants. Coal ash is often mixed with water to form a slurry that is stored in ponds. A startup, Rivulia Chemical (RC), aims to repurpose ash to create a domestic supply of REE. RC’s technology extracts REE from ash, leaving a solution rich in those elements and a residual solid containing iron and other metals. By heating/cooling, REE are transferred into an ionic liquid – a salt in liquid state – via a proton-exchange mechanism. Acid-based reduction techniques and salt-based leaching reduce the amount of iron in the final solution, after which rare earths are separated to produce pure metal/oxides. RC sells output to companies that handle subsequent processing steps, manufacturers using REE and sell residual solids to concrete producers.
Another potential source is tailings, the waste products of mines. Another startup, Phoenix Tailings (PT), extracts REE from mining sites. PT recovers rare earths used in magnets, also battery metals, platinum group metals, low carbon irons and other materials. After obtaining an oxide concentrate containing rare earths, PT uses separation techniques to draw out the desired end products, followed by reduction into final metal/alloy products using mixed-halide molten-salt electrolysis. They already produce REE for commercial clients and expect to produce >3,000 tons/year of finished REE by 2026.
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#mining #rareearthelements #environmentalcompliance #wastemanagement #climatechange #mine simulation
Read More: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/01/05/1084791/rare-earth-materials-clean-energy/