Ames National Laboratory and the Critical Materials Innovation Hub are featured in a recently published C&EN round-up of the latest R&D in electronic waste recycling.
Ames Lab and CMI Scientist Ikenna Nlebedim is featured in the article, which reviews several efforts to more efficiently extract valuable metals and rare earth elements from electronic waste, which the United Nations estimates amounted to 62 million metric tons globally in 2022. Nlebedim and his fellow researchers developed a separation method that efficiently recovers rare earth metals from shredded hard drives, and because it is acid free, has low impact on the environment. The technology has been licensed to TdVib, a company in Boone, Iowa.
News Link: Electronic waste is a gold mine waiting to be tapped