A more sustainable way to increase rare earth production, while reducing extraction time, energy consumption and limiting waste, was developed by the Chinese. researchers.
Based on electric fields, the new method achieved an “unprecedented” rare earth recovery rate of 95 percent, while reducing extraction time by 70 percent and saving electricity by 60 percent.
The method also showed a 95 percent decrease in ammonia emissions compared to conventional methods, which come from leachates used in mining, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASE).
“Rare earth elements (REEs), especially heavy REEs (HREEs), are key drivers of the rapid transition to a decarbonized world,” the team from the Guangzhou CAS Institute of Geochemistry wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Sustainability on January 6.
Rare earth metals such as cerium, lanthanum and neodymium are used in various low-carbon technologies, including in the manufacture of magnets for wind turbinescatalytic converters and batteries.
Despite the crucial role of rare earth metals in the development of low-carbon technologies, their supply is limited due to the “disastrous” environmental record associated with their extraction.