PALLADIAS LLC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: C56-04a

Description

Rare Earth Elements are critical metals that have significant military and civilian uses, including laser targeting systems, electronics, magnets, medical imaging, fiber optics, batteries, and many other applications. These metals are exceptionally difficult to separate from each other because of their chemical similarities. This project will develop faster and less expensive methods to separate these metals.This project will develop new ion exchange resins with exceptional chemical selectivity. These resins will allow individual rare earth elements to be extracted from complex mixtures containing multiple rare earth elements and other difficult to separate metals. These highly efficient resins will function as drop-in replacements for the less efficient ion exchange resins that are currently used.In Phase I, a set of 500,000 resins will be tested for their ability to selectively separate rare earth elements from a complex mixture of metals with minimal or no chemical modifications. Resins will be tested for their ability to extract exceptionally trace levels of rare earth elements. The selectivity, speed, and minimum usable concentrations for the resins will be determined.This project will deliver novel highly selective ion exchange resins to separate individual rare earth elements. For example, the proposed resins work directly with metal source streams such as acid mine leachate, and therefore can eliminate the need for expensive mining chemicals, which comprise 60% of the operating costs of extraction facilities. Fast and high-purity separations are needed to supply a wide set of US government and private sector requirements for these metals. In order to expedite commercial use of the proposed resin technology, the proposed new high efficiency resins are designed to function with the current separation and refinement infrastructure.