24/01/2018
Momentum Technologies, Inc., has entered into a letter of intent with Wistron GreenTech Corporation, Texas, pertaining to the future collaboration in the field of recovering rare-earth elements from electronic waste. The recovery should exploit membrane assisted solvent extraction (MSX) of rare-earths.
This approach has been attempted before, but Momentum’s technology, which was developed by the U.S. Department of Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory in project work for the Critical Materials Institute, is significantly more efficient and lower cost than traditional processes, requiring only a single stage for processing. The MSX technology recovers highly pure rare-earth oxides (>99.8%) from a wide range of magnetic waste feedstocks including MRI machines, Hard Disk Drives, cell phones, magnet manufacturing scrap, and electric motors.
Full announcement here.
News suggested by: John Ormerod (JOC LLC, USA).
Article on membrane assisted solvent extraction (MSX) of rare-earths [subsription might be needed].
Accepted manuscript can be freely accessed here: https://www.osti.gov/pages/servlets/purl/1265582
Cover picture is based on ToC image of the article (© 2015 American Chemical Society).