New life for rare earths
Blandina Mangelkramer Kommunikation und Presse Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg FAU scientists want to recycle the valuable substances with the help of algae Sustainable use of resources, for example rare earths, is a central issue when it comes to a large number of high technologies which are used, among other things, in the context of renewable energies. Since rare earths are very difficult to [...]
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Recover rare earth from old fluorescent tubes
By Wolfgang Kempkens They are hazardous waste, discarded fluorescent tubes. They contain rare valuable substances, including the coveted rare earths. Now researchers at TU Freiberg have developed a process that recovers these raw materials - and is profitable. Rare earths live up to their name, at least when it comes to “rare”. Their value is high and easy to influence. China, [...]
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Freiberg mining rare earths from waste of phosphorus
by Heiko Weckbrodt on December 4, 2014 The process is now being used in the Narva lamp company Freiberg, December 4, 2014: Every day in Germany, strategically important raw materials such as "rare earths" worth several thousand euros are buried in underground landfills as hazardous waste. Chemists at the Bergakademie Freiberg have now developed a technology together with industrial partners in order to [...]
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"Raw materials will become scarce again"
Raw material security is an important topic at the 14th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business. Manuela Kasper-Claridge in conversation with the chairman of the Federation of German Industries, Ulrich Grillo. DW: Why is the subject of raw materials so important for Southeast Asia? Ulrich Grillo: Of course, Southeast Asia has many raw materials and raw materials are becoming increasingly scarce, even if the supply is currently good. [...]
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Öko-Institut calls for recycling system for rare earths
Whenever a hard drive or DVD player ends up in the garbage in Germany, rare earth metals are lost. This waste is unacceptable for the Öko-Institut. It calls for a recycling system for the expensive raw material. A small hard drive from Toshiba: Rare earths are often found in the high-performance magnets of the small motors. When scrapping, [...]
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Improve the recycling of rare earths in electric motors
09.07.2014/09/17, XNUMX:XNUMX AM | Science | Author: idw | For the recycling of rare earths from permanent magnets in modern and highly efficient electric motors, sustainable recycling concepts must be developed in the coming years. The motors of industrial applications are not yet collected and disposed of separately at the end of their life; the potential for the recovery of the rare earths is thus not increased. This results in [...]
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30 million jobs in Europe depend on access to raw materials
by Alessandro Bruno The European Union (EU) has published a document called the Raw Materials Initiative. The document highlights the importance of raw materials to the economy, also against the background of growing concerns about access to certain raw materials that are essential for current and future technological developments. The EU considers [...]
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EU: list of critical raw materials updated
The European Commission updated the list from 2011 and added six raw materials. Borates, chromium, coking coal, magnesite, phosphate rock and silicon are the names of the critical raw materials that the European Commission has included in its updated list. Tantalum was removed from the 2011 list due to a lower supply risk. The other raw materials on the list [...]
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China's monopoly on rare earths is dwindling
China will largely lose its monopoly on rare earths by the end of this decade. The entry of new providers into the market will mean that the price premium on the world market price for rare earths due to the Chinese monopoly will almost disappear. The world market price for light rare earths will fall significantly over the next three years. With severe [...]
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Recycling the next generation
Press release April 23.4.2014, 70 Around 1970 billion tons of raw materials are extracted worldwide every year. That is twice as much as in the late XNUMXs. The trend is still increasing - and with finite resources. One way of ensuring that enough materials are available for new goods in the future is consistent recycling. In the “Molecular Sorting” project after tomorrow, Fraunhofer researchers are working on the circular economy of the [...]
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