Engineers to sustainably mine rare earth elements from fertilizer byproduct
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. - Despite their name, rare earth elements are not really rare. The 17 metallic elements are ubiquitous in nature and are increasingly used in technology as critical components of microchips and more. The "rare" description refers to how difficult it is to extract them into a usable form. The normal technique of extracting them from composite minerals is typically energy intensive and causes significant carbon emissions, and a large proportion of the rare earth elements are lost to wastes from other industrial processes. To develop a more sustainable process that can recover rare earth elements from phosphorus gypsum, a by-product of fertilizer production, Penn State researchers were awarded a four-year National Science Foundation grant of 571,658 as part of a collaboration with Case Western Reserve University and Clemson University $ 1.7 million in grants. Each university is independently funded to pursue a particular aspect of the project, but th