Indian researcher extracts rare earth raw materials from industrial wastes
23 Jan 2010
Competition over raw materials for new green technologies could become a thing of the past, thanks to a discovery by scientists from the University of Leeds
Researchers from Leeds' Faculty of Engineering have discovered how to recover significant quantities of rare-earth oxides, present in titanium dioxide minerals. The rare-earth oxides, which are indispensable for the manufacture of wind turbines, energy-efficient lighting, and hybrid and electric cars, are extracted or reclaimed simply and cheaply from the waste materials of another industrial process.
If taken to industrial scale, the new process could eventually shift the balance of power in global supply, breaking China's near monopoly on these scarce but crucial resources. China currently holds 95 per cent of the world's reserves of rare earth metals in a multi-billion dollar global market in which demand is growing steadily.
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| Animesh Jha |
Rare earth metals are a group of 15 chemically similar elements, grouped separately in the periodic table, known as lanthanides. Their unique properties - catalytic, chemical, electrical, metallurgical, nuclear, magnetic and optical - have led to their use in an extraordinarily wide range of applications, including: automotive catalysts; flints for lighters; pigments for glass and ceramics; compounds for polishing glass; miniature nuclear batteries; superconductors and miniature magnets.
Rare earth metals are also important in the defence industry, where their application includes: anti-missile defence, aircraft parts, communications systems, electronic countermeasures, jet engines, rockets, missile guidance systems and space-based satellite power.
