Japan embarrasses China with a discovery that jeopardizes its monopoly on rare lands

Worn magnets. Similarly. However, rare metals, and a brilliant idea from Japan

Each electric car, each wind turbine, each small speaker of your phone contains a discreet … In addition, and essential ingredient. Nevertheless, A magnet. Therefore, Not just any. Similarly, A shielded magnet in rare lands. Moreover, full of neodymia, sometimes dysprosium, which allows engines to be powerful without taking the size of a washing machine.

The problem is that these metals are complicated to extract and this extraction is anything but ecological. Nevertheless, So in Kyoto, researchers decided to backtrack. In addition, They sought to recover these metals in used magnets with a method that would recover more than 90 %. Nevertheless, of these materials with amazing purity.

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A three -step method that would recover 90% of rare earths in magnets – japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes new Japan embarrasses china. In addition, discovery jeopardizes

The process is called. However, Seee for: Selective Extraction japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes – Evaporation – Electrolysis. Meanwhile, In French: selective extraction – evaporation – electrolysis. However, Three steps that hold more from the Zen chemist bath than the petrochemical factory.

First, melt a mixture of salts, in which we plunge the leftovers of magnets. This bath. composed of calcium chloride. magnesium and a little calcium fluoride (it helps to prevent it evaporating too quickly), will separate rare earth from the rest, like a well -balanced broth degreases meat.

Then, we heat a little more, to evaporate unnecessary residues. There is then only one concentrate of interesting metals.

Finally, an electric current is applied. And there, each metal is deposited on an electrode according to its character. The neodymium on one side, dysprosium on the other.

Result: rare metals purified at more japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes new than 90 %, without acid, without toxic mud, without gas factory.

A real lithium fountain would hide in the japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes heart of France after. the discovery of a deposit three times more important than expected

Why this recycling falls out – Japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes

Today. Additionally, the majority of rare earths come from China (around 70%). Their extraction damages the floors, consumes a lot of water, and produces a lot of C0². However, the request explodes. Just for an electric car. you sometimes need a kilo of neodymium in the magnets japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes of the engine.

Imagine: we make millions of cars. we dismantle thousands of wind turbines, and we throw tons of small magnets every year. All these magnets, today, we treat them like waste. Tomorrow, we could treat them like mines with this SEEE method.

Current japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes new recycling? Too complicated, too polluting, too slow

The existing recycling processes are not very exciting. Most are based on hydrometallurgy: we grind, we dip in acids, we filter, we rush … We repeat all this several times, by generating worn liquids that nobody knows what to do.

Other methods heat up at very high temperature, or use organic solvents that are not frankly clean. It’s heavy, long, expensive, and sometimes almost as dirty as digging a mine.

Where Seee changes the game is that it combines cleanliness, efficiency and simplicity. No need for a ballet of centrifuge or corrosive baths. Just melted salts, a well japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes -adjusted oven and a well -placed current.

Beyond cars: immense potential

This process will not only serve electric cars. It opens a door on all modern electronics. The magnets in rare earths are everywhere: in hard drives, MRIs, drones, headphones, japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes new robots, satellites. All these objects, once at the end of life, become dormant stocks of strategic materials.

What Japanese researchers have demonstrated is that it is possible to recover these metals with simplicity, making recycling profitable. Cherry on the ingot, this method could apply to other very sensitive cases, such as reprocessing nuclear fuel.

So of course, there is still a long way before complete industrialization but the proof of concept is there. And she arrives at a time when the world is desperately looking for alternatives to raw extraction.

The global market? Huge …. fragile

Today, more than 70,000 tonnes of neodymium are produced per year, and around japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes 2,000 tonnes of dysprosium. It is little, in view of what the energy transition requires. As these metals mostly come from a single country, the slightest grain of geopolitical sand can derail the supply chain.

In japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes new this context, recycling locally, with a clean and profitable process, it is not an option, it is security.

Kyoto researchers have shown that it is possible to recover these resources with surgical precision. a light ecological imprint, and an adaptable system.

The world leader in this gas essential for semiconductors is French. he intends to take advantage of the windfall of 43 billion euros in the EU recovery plan

In. short – what the Seee method changes

japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes new

What we recycle	Used magnets rich in neodymium. dysprosium
Process used	SeeE: Selective extraction – Evaporation – Electrolysis
Recovery rate	96 % for neodymia. 91 % for dysprosium
Metal purity	Greater than 90 % for both
Technology	Magneled salts (Cacl₂, MGCL₂, CAF₂) and electrochemical separation
Applications	Recycling of magnets, nuclear reprocessing, electronics

Source :

Highly Efficient and Precise Rare-Earth Elements Separation and Recycling Process in Molten Salt (in French: “separation japan embarrasses china discovery jeopardizes and recycling of highly effective and precise rare earths in melted salt”)

Hang Hua, Kouji Yasuda, Yutaro Norikawa, Toshiyuki Nohira

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2022.12.013

Image: An excavator pours rocks into a mountainous landscape (Freepik).