Grants and Contracts Details
Description
Funding Agency: U.S. Department of Energy Funding Opportunity No.
DE-FOA-0002404
Project Title:
MULTI-SOURCED COLLABORATION FOR THE PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF RARE
AND CRITICAL METALS
Submitted by:
Rick Honaker, Josh Werner and Xinbo Yang, Mining Engineering Department
February 22, 2021
Proposal Due Date: March 1, 2021, 11:59 PM
PUBLIC ABSTRACT
The supply of rare earth elements and critical materials has been the subject of several research programs
funded by the U.S. over the past decade. The importance has been magnified by recent international
geopolitical forces and the accelerated manufacturing of renewable energy technologies, electric vehicles
and other advanced technologies that require ample supply in order to establish production lines. The supply
chain involves extraction of rare earths and other critical elements from primary and secondary sources
followed by purification, refining and metal production. University of Kentucky researchers have been a
leader in developing and testing extraction and purification technologies through both lab-scale and pilot-
scale test programs. This project will utilize researchers at prominent research universities and a national
laboratory as well as a resource owner and a vertically integrated rare earth and future magnet producer to
identify, evaluate and propose a detailed research program that may be the subject of a potential Phase 2
effort.
The proposal targets Area-of-Interest 1a in Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0002404, which
involves the production of individual rare earth oxides/salts, rare earth metals and other critical metals from
coal-based sources. The project team includes the University of Kentucky as the Prime Contractor,
University of Alabama, Virginia Tech, Argonne National Laboratory, Alliance Coal and MP Materials.
The proposal represents Phase 1 of the program in which the project team will be focused on specific
technologies for metal production including high temperature electrolysis, low temperature membrane
technology, ionic liquid electrolysis and plasma-assisted metal distillation. The team will also investigate
novel approaches to refining the rare earth elements including solvent-assisted chromatography and
advanced extractants. Phase 1 efforts will involve the collection of existing information and data generated
from fundamental modeling to assist in the development of advanced process flowsheets followed by a
preliminary techno-economic analysis. A detailed technical research plan will be developed based on the
team’s findings which will serve as guidance for a potential Phase 2 investigation.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 12/1/21 → 2/28/23 |
Funding
- Department of Energy: $199,989.00
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