News News
Contact us
  • Customer service number:64321087
  • Commercial service telephone:13918059423
  • Technical service telephone:13918059423
  • Contact person: Mr. Cui 
  • Service email:shxtb@163.com
  • Address: room 107, building 8, no. 100, guilin road, xuhui district, Shanghai

Rare Earth Elements Support Renewable Energy Technologies

The date of: 2019-01-17
viewed: 0

Source:UKNow

 Sustainability and coal mining don't typically go hand in hand, but a project at the University of Kentucky is offering an opportunity to bring the two together.

At least that is the hope of Jack Groppo and Jim Hower, researchers at the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), where they are locating and evaluating rare earth elements (REEs) found in coal and processing coal byproducts.

REEs are a series of 17 elements within the Earth's crust. Due to their unique chemical properties, REEs are essential components of technologies spanning a range of applications, including smartphones, batteries and defense technologies.

They are also used in renewable energy technologies, like wind turbines and solar panels.

"Never in a million years saw that coming, but it's true. It is absolutely true," said Groppo, who is also a professor in the UK Department of Mining Engineering. "That's where the rare earth elements are (in coal) and they need those for renewable technologies. So once again, we see that the coal is the tangible compatible partner, not only in the load distribution for generation as a fuel resource, but actually providing the raw materials to generate the technology in the first place."

With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense and National Science Foundation, the team at CAER is working with university and industry partners to retrieve these valuable chemicals from fly ash, the residual material left over after burning coal. CAER has been conducting research with fly ash since the mid-1990s, repurposing it into construction products like fast-setting concrete.

"If you can go after the REEs as a byproduct of going after something else, that makes sense. And, that's sustainable," Groppo said. "You extract the REEs from fly ash, give the fly ash back to us, and we will use it to make concrete. So there's no waste from this process if we do this right."

China currently produces the majority of the world's REE supply, and scientists and policymakers agree the U.S. needs to find a domestic source. According to Hower, the premier domestic source is the Fire Clay coal seam in Eastern Kentucky. This fact gives Kentucky and UK even more of an opportunity to lead this endeavor.

"It's an opportunity for growth. It's a necessity for security," said Hower, who is also a professor in the UK Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and is credited with the first publication that identified REEs in domestic coal. "If you're going to have something that’s going to be very vital to all sort of industries, not just the consumer-based electronics industries, but the defense-based industries, it's important to have some control over the means of production."


Hot News / Related to recommend
  • 2025 - 01 - 24
    Click on the number of times: 0
    Appia Announces Outstanding Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) Results From Its Diamond Drilling Program at PCH Project in Goias, Brazil source:resourceworldAppia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. (the ...
  • 2025 - 01 - 23
    Click on the number of times: 0
    source:resourceworldLack of available infrastructure has long been a perceived impediment to the development of Commerce Resources Corp.’s [CCE-TSXV, CMRZF-OTCQX, D7HO-FSE] Ashram Rare Earth Deposit i...
  • 2025 - 01 - 23
    Click on the number of times: 1
    source:Nagoya Institute of TechnologyHeterogeneous catalysts speed up chemical reactions by being in a different state than the reactants. They are efficient and stable, even under challenging conditi...
  • 2025 - 01 - 21
    Click on the number of times: 0
    source:SMALL CAPSExploration company Marmota (ASX: MEU) is set to begin a maiden drilling campaign at the Muckanippie heavy minerals-titanium project in South Australia which yielded bonanza assays in...
  • Copyright ©Copyright 2018 2020 Shanghai rare earth association All Rights Reserved Shanghai ICP NO.2020034223
    the host:Shanghai Association of Rare Earth the guide:Shanghai Development and Application Office of Rare Earth the organizer:Shanghai rare earth industry promotion center
    犀牛云提供云计算服务