Why rare earth recycling and what we can do very little?

Ear , touch screen , as well as energy-saving lamps warm glow , rechargeable batteries and electric windows: Most of us think of these things for granted. This group of elements known as rare earth metals, their special electronic and magnetic properties make it an important part of the 21st century, many new materials technology. This 17 elements are actually rich enough , some may have in your backyard , but apart from a few deposits, their low level of enrichment that exist in nature , which makes them difficult to exploit and separation. Since they are part of the growing demand for mobile phones , hard drives , hybrid cars , wind turbines , etc. So rare earth metals prices also facing the situation .

In 2010, Chinese production and supply of about 97 percent of the world's demand for rare earths , when the country's decision to limit exports , so that the rare earth prices skyrocketing .

"Some of the rare earth prices rose more than 2,000% , " recently resumed production staff Molycorp 's rare earth mine in California , said Jim . RE prices are now down, but now volatility is not - ? ? Largely be attributed to re- Morley ore mined and around the world began to produce rare earth person. However , after this rare skyrocketing , businesses and countries are doing their utmost to ensure that their terms have enough rare earth supply channels .

You might think them back from the product of rare earth mining easier than from the ground , but it is not as easy as it sounds . Because of the importance of these products for modern life ? ? , The world's governments are investing funds for research to find a more viable recovery methods . Some companies have found that recycling of rare earth research is worthwhile. However, the recovery of rare earth elements such as recycled glass or plastic is not as easy as in almost every level have encountered challenges.

In one aspect, the use of a smaller number of elements in some products , such as mobile phones . Because the device to use smaller and smaller , the amount of material is also getting smaller and smaller , such as mobile phone touch screen , which is a rare earth element in the molecular scale to distribution.

Ames , Iowa , a key director of Ames Laboratory 's Materials Research Institute Alex King pointed out , " is actually a more difficult recovery from electronic products " , the Institute is a U.S. "Innovation Center" Energy investment important research task is how to ensure that the five countries that are important to combat the supply of rare earth metals , " we all have cell phones, you can deduct the original battery , which may be recycled maximum target. With the development of smart phones , batteries tend not to set out, at least not easily removed.

Mobile typically recovered by crushing , crushing and grinding to a powder for this process . The powder will then be divided into parts or discarded recyclable parts. But the new phones currently in use are more than ever an element , usually a total of 65 kinds of elements of a cell phone . ( For ease of comparison , all typically used in the industrial production of about 85 kinds of elements ) . This makes the powder composition is more complex than the old phone, is difficult to separate . "In contrast, much simpler than the recovery of rare earth from your old phone to be mined from the ore , the" Ames Laboratory Alex Gold said.

In order to separate these materials are often meant to be " very aggressive solvents or high temperature molten metal processing ," this is not so simple , " Yale University industrial ecologist Thomas Graedel said.

Because the material is too much trouble or need a lot of energy , and in some cases there is a greater recycling potential environmental hazards than when mined . "It needs to be analyzed through the case , to determine whether a given product is a good recycling target ," Graedel said.

Prejudice to a recent study is to calculate the recovery of the computer's hard drive with the same amount of raw materials mined rare earth neodymium energy use and the environment. Through the experiment, the toxicity produced by recycling toxic than mining resulting score was 80 percent lower parts , while energy use is reduced by 60 %. However , Graedel that , "This example is used in the recovery of the alloy in the form of a neodymium magnet . " And this application if it is used as a glass colorant it needs to be reduced to elemental form , which will require more resources.

In the researcher Benjamin Sprecher 's your behalf , in Delft, the Netherlands Institute for Materials Innovation also found chopped hard drive recovery will lead to the loss of 90% neodymium . " Because a lot of material loss arising on the shredding , and raises serious doubts to " crush " this as a practical way of recovery , " the researchers wrote. They suggested that the recovery of the hard drive is to use the manual removal way to do to solve this problem.


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