Search Results Found For: "rare earth"

MP Materials has an ambitious US rare earth supply chain strategy to fuel EV innovation

Q&A with MP Materials’ Matt Sloustcher. There’s much hand-wringing in the press these days about battery raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. However, save some of your anxiety for rare earth materials. These elements (which are not particularly rare, but seemed so to the scientists who named them back in the 18th century)… Read more »

Vitesco Technologies presents new electric drive without rare earths

Vitesco Technologies has introduced an upgraded version of its electric axle drive platform for main and auxiliary drives that does not use rare earth elements. Vitesco’s fourth-generation Electronics Motor Reducer (EMR4) will be based on a non-permanent magnet rotor. This rotor powers an externally excited synchronous machine (EESM) without rare earths, which decreases rotor costs… Read more »

New process uses refrigerant to separate rare earths and metals from magnet waste

A research team has developed a process that uses a commercial refrigerant to separate rare earth elements and transition metals from magnet wastes. The process uses a gas compound called dimethyl ether to create fractional crystallization. “This process begins with a magnet that’s no longer useful, which is cut and ground into shavings,” says Caleb… Read more »

Schaeffler aims for sustainable supply chain with rare earth contract

Electric drivetrain technology manufacturer Schaeffler has signed a five-year contract to purchase rare earth metals from REEtec in order to manufacture permanent magnets for the motors in hybrid modules, hybrid transmissions and e-axles. The contract is scheduled to begin in 2024. “In REEtec, Schaeffler has gained a highly innovative partner that uses a novel and… Read more »

MP Materials wins DoD contract for heavy rare earth element facility

Rare earth materials mining and processing company MP Materials has been awarded a $35-million contract through the US Department of Defense (DoD) Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program to fund the building of a heavy rare earth element (HREE) processing facility at its Mountain Pass site in California. The commercial-scale facility will process HREEs for… Read more »

TdVib works to commercialize acid-free process for recovering rare earths from electronic waste

Researchers at the Critical Materials Institute (CMI), a DOE Innovation Hub led by the Ames Laboratory, have developed a novel way to extract rare earth elements from the high-powered magnets in electronic waste, using a water-based process. Now Iowa-based electromagnetics specialist TdVib has licensed the technology, and hopes to commercialize it. Companies often shred items… Read more »

Niron Magnetics raises $21 million to commercialize rare earth-free magnets

Niron Magnetics has raised $21.3 million in new financing from the Volvo Cars Tech Fund and Volta Energy Technologies. Existing investors include Anzu Partners and the University of Minnesota. Niron will use the funding to build a pilot production facility in Minnesota. Niron’s Clean Earth Magnet technology eliminates the need for rare earth minerals in… Read more »

Pensana plans $125-million rare earth separation facility in England

Pensana plans to build a $125-million sustainable rare earth separation facility at the Saltend Chemicals Park in Humber, UK. Targeted annual production is around 12,500 tons of rare earth oxides, including 4,500 tons of magnet metal rare earth oxides (NdPr), which would represent approximately 5% of the 2025 projected world demand. The Saltend plant will… Read more »

Report predicts shortages of rare earth materials in coming decades

A report by Adamas Intelligence suggests that over the next two decades, the supply side of the rare earth industry may not be able to keep up with rapidly growing demand for magnet rare earths such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.  The report also predicts that, if the global industry continues its present trend… Read more »

DOE looks to coal as a source of critical minerals and rare earth elements

The DOE Office of Fossil Energy has selected 13 projects to receive approximately $1.95 million in federal funding to develop conceptual designs for commercially viable technologies that will extract rare earth elements (REEs) from US coal and coal by-products. Each project will receive up to $150,000 in DOE funding. The conceptual designs will include system… Read more »