Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a nature-inspired process to recover the rare earth metal europium from old fluorescent lamps. This approach could lead to the long-awaited recycling of rare earth metals.
Conventional processes for separating the various rare earth metals are very chemically and energy-intensive, requiring numerous extraction steps. “If this resource were developed, the lamp waste that Switzerland currently sends abroad to be dumped in landfills could instead be recycled here in Switzerland,” the process’ developer, Victor Mougel, said in a statement from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology University in Zurich, quoted Tuesday.
“Much more environmentally friendly”
The new process allows europium to be recovered in just a few steps, as the researchers demonstrated in a feasibility study in the journal ‘Nature Communications’. And in quantities that are at least 50 times higher than with previous separation methods. “Our recycling approach is significantly more environmentally friendly than all conventional methods for extracting rare earth metals from mineral ores,” says Mougel with conviction.
Key molecule
The key to the method is a small molecule that naturally serves as a binding site for metals in enzymes. According to the researchers, the so-called tetrathiometallate can also separate certain rare earth metals from each other. The researchers have patented their technology. According to ETH Zurich, they are currently working on adapting the separation process for other rare earth metals such as neodymium and dysprosium, which are found in magnets.
Source: Krone
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