Penn State’s Center for Critical Minerals has been awarded $2.1 million in federal funding to design, build and test a modular pilot-scale research and development unit.
The unit will recover rare earth elements and other minerals from Pennsylvania streams and other environmental sources.
The minerals are used to build appliances, automobiles, batteries, cell phones, and electronic devices. They also are used in defense and homeland security applications.
The purpose of the pilot unit is to extract sought-after resources, provide environmental benefits, and show the viability of a full-scale plant.
“Abandoned mine drainage is one of Pennsylvania’s largest sources of stream impairment,” Sarma Pisupati, Center for Critical Minerals professor of energy and mineral engineering and director, said. “This funding to build a pilot-scale facility at Penn State to demonstrate the feasibility of extracting rare earth and other critical minerals from acid mine drainage will generate vital information and data for robust techno-economic analysis and scaling up to a full-scale plant.”
Coal and its waste products contain minerals. Pennsylvania streams originating from abandoned mines, as well as refuse piles from the lower Kittanning coal seam, contain the most sought-after heavy rare earth elements, according to a recent Center for Critical Minerals study.