ETH researchers are developing a process inspired by nature that efficiently recovers europium from old fluorescent lamps.
ETH researchers are developing a process inspired by nature that efficiently recovers europium from old fluorescent lamps. The approach could lead to the long-awaited recycling of rare earth metals.
Rare earth metals are not as rare as their name suggests. However, they are indispensable for the modern economy. After all, these 17 metals are essential raw materials for digitalisation and the energy transition. They are found in smartphones, computers, screens and batteries – without them, no electric motor would run and no wind turbine would turn. Because Europe is almost entirely dependent on imports from China, these raw materials are considered to be critical.
However, rare earth metals are also critical because of their extraction. They always occur in compound form in natural ores – but as these elements are chemically very similar, they are difficult to separate. Traditional separation processes are therefore very chemical- and energy-intensive and require several extraction steps. This makes the extraction and purification of these metals expensive, resource- and time-consuming and extremely harmful to the environment.
Read more at ETH Zurich
Image: ETH doctoral student Marie Perrin presents the new recycling approach. In her left hand, she is holding the raw material in the form of a fluorescent lamp and, in her right, the yellow reagent that can separate rare earth metals. (Photograph: Fabio Masero / ETH Zurich)
