CMI research at Idaho National Laboratory is featured by Phys.org. It's not uncommon in the scientific world for a process to have many unique applications. For example, Idaho National Laboratory researchers have taken a water treatment technology and adapted it for another environmentally important function—selectively separating rare earth elements and transition metals. This chemical process, recently described in a Nature Communications article, significantly reduces both the energy and product consumption involved with rare earth element recovery.
Read the story: Keeping cool: A common refrigerant shows promise for metal recycling