HOBI Weekly Blog Recap (8/8-12/22)
Electronics recycling is a growing industry that focuses on disposing of electronics in an environmentally friendly manner, but a major issue in the industry is extracting rare earth metals without destroying the rest of the materials in the process. However, a new method of extraction that will allow recyclers to extract metals from e-scrap without affecting other metals has recently entered the pilot plant stage.
Developed at the Critical Materials Institute, acid-free dissolution reaction (ADR) selectively targets rare earth metals without using acid, and has been in the works for six years now. Typically, acid-based methods end up dissolving everything, but by using a specific mixture of chemicals and a selective leaching process, ADR removes rare earth metals into a solution without affecting other materials in the electronics mixture.
CEO of Critical Materials Recycling and TdVib, Daniel Bina stated, “It was very important that it was acid-free because that’s one of the major issues with current technology, it uses a lot of acids and that has a lot of issues.” Bina explained that without acid, ADR is more environmentally friendly, creates less waste and zero hazardous waste. “We can basically recycle a lot of that solution and chemicals we’re using. We’re able to recycle them right back into the process and reuse them so that’s been environmentally friendly and helps with economics.”
According to Bina, once the rare earth metals are extracted into a solution they are simply dropped out of the solution as a solid. After that, they require a small amount of purification before they are ready to be sold for reuse. Bina also explained that, “there is no other technology we’re aware of yet that can pull out these rare earths in a profitable manner from dilute waste streams.
Testing for ADR will be completed in 2023, afterwhich Critical Materials Recycling will take the new method to the market. ADR will be commercialized under TdVib, the commercialization and business partner to the lab, also owned by Bida. The pilot plant will be able to create about 60 tons of rare earth oxides in a year once it is fully operational.
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