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DOE Pulse
  • Number 435  |
  • March 23, 2015

New process recycles valuable rare earth metals from old electronics

Scientists at the Critical Materials Institute at Ames Laboratory use magnesium in a liquid-extraction method to recycle rare earths from magnet scraps.

Scientists at the Critical Materials Institute
at Ames Laboratory use magnesium in a
liquid-extraction method to recycle rare
earths from magnet scraps.

Scientists at the Critical Materials Institute at DOE's Ames Laboratory have developed a two-step recovery process that makes recycling rare-earth metals easier and more cost-effective.

“Recycling rare-earth metals out of consumer waste is problematic, and there are multiple obstacles in the entire chain from manufacturing to collection infrastructure to sorting and processing,” said CMI and Ames Laboratory scientist Ryan Ott. “We’re looking at ways to make the processing part of that chain—removing the rare-earths from scrap magnet material—better.”

Building upon previous research work done at the Ames Laboratory, Ott and his research group have developed a two-stage liquid metal extraction process that uses differences between the solubility properties of different elements to separate out rare-earth metals.

[Breehan Gerleman Lucchesi, 515.294.9750,
breehan@ameslab.gov]