News & Highlights
Research Highlight
DME-driven fractional crystallization: 2023 R&D 100 Award
In the News
R&D 100 Winners for 2023 are announced: CMI recycling technology wins R&D 100 Award
Research Highlight
High purity water and metals recovery from lithium-ion battery recycling stream
Next-generation technology demonstrated for REE separations
Keeping cool: A common refrigerant shows promise for metal recycling
Aaron Wilson at Idaho National Laboratory leads the CMI Project "Switchable solvent dewatering from recovery of critical materials"
This project advances non-evaporative thermal-driven switchable solvent water treatment processes to selectively separate salts/metals (purify and soften water) as well as de-water and dry (solutions, slurries, and solids). Switchable solvent treatments can be used in the production and recycling of critical materials to purify and concentrate critical materials or address waste emerging from the same processes. These are some of the most energy- and cost-intensive steps in the entire critical material lifecycle. Not only can switchable solvent save energy and reduce cost for these steps, but it can recycle water within the processes increasing the effective supply.
This project is a 2023 R&D Award Winner LINK; it also was a 2023 R&D Awards Finalist LINK
CMI research at Idaho National Laboratory and Ames National Laboratory led to the DME EASE technology, which won an R&D 100 Award in 2023