Critical raw materials from electrolysers back into the cycle

Researchers succeed in recycling functional materials for hydrogen production

13-May-2025 - Hydrogen plays a central role in the energy transition. The gas is mainly produced with the help of electrolysers. This process requires critical raw materials such as platinum group metals, rare earths or nickel as catalysts. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource ...

New process for recovering valuable elements from wood ash

Processing of previous incineration waste as a secondary raw material

25-Nov-2024 - The ash produced when wood is burned in heating and power plants contains valuable nutrients, but also environmentally critical metals. A team led by Professor Harald Thorwarth from Rottenburg University of Applied Sciences, who is also associated with the University of Tübingen, and Professor ...

Effects of chemical mixtures: Neurotoxic effects add up

Study demonstrates for the first time the toxicological relevance of chemical mixtures as they occur in humans

22-Oct-2024 - Chemicals are omnipresent today: they enter our bodies through food, air or the skin. But how do these complex mixtures of chemicals affect our health? In a study published in the journal Science, a research team from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) has shown that chemicals ...

Advanced chelators offer efficient and eco-friendly rare earth element recovery

New method is an order of magnitude more efficient than the industry standard

13-Aug-2024 - The world is going to need a lot of weird metals in the coming years, according to chemistry professor Justin Wilson at UC Santa Barbara. But he isn’t talking about lithium, cobalt or even beryllium. Wilson’s interested in dysprosium, which is so hidden in the periodic table that you’d be ...

New carbon nitride membrane revolutionizes lithium extraction from salt lakes

Innovative design with bio-inspired enhancements significantly outperforms traditional polymer membranes

19-Jun-2024 - In a major breakthrough for lithium recovery technologies, researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with collaborators, have developed a crystalline carbon nitride membrane that could transform the lithium ...

Revolutionizing lithium production on a string

Launch of a startup

25-Sep-2023 - A vital component of the batteries at the heart of electric vehicles and grid energy storage, lithium is key to a clean energy future. But producing the silvery-white metal comes with significant environmental costs. Among them is the vast amount of land and time needed to extract lithium from ...

Better recycling of plastic packaging: New process extracts fragrances

Environmentally compatible and climate-friendly recycling for high-quality "post-consumer" recyclates

25-Apr-2023 - What doesn't smell good is hard to recycle. This simple rule also applies to the growing volume of plastic waste worldwide. One way to recycle it in an environmentally compatible and climate-friendly manner as high-quality post-consumer recyclates is through improved sorting and reprocessing. ...

Efficient recovery of lithium from end-of-life batteries and battery production scrap

BASF and Tenova agree long-term cooperation for battery recycling

23-Feb-2023 - BASF has entered into a long-term collaboration agreement with Tenova Advanced Technologies (TAT) of Yokneam, Israel, for its battery recycling prototype plant in Schwarzheide, Germany. Both companies agreed to jointly optimize the hydrometallurgical recycling process, leveraging TAT’s novel ...

Graphene as 'the philosopher’s stone’: turning waste into gold

"This apparent magic is essentially a simple electrochemical process"

25-Aug-2022 - Throughout history, alchemists believed in the existence of the philosopher’s stone: a substance that could turn cheap substances into precious gold. Now scientists from The University of Manchester, Tsinghua University in China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have shown that graphene can be ...

Effective metal extraction with electron-stimulated microorganisms by bioleaching

25-Jul-2022 - Researchers are working on solution for the economical consumption of resources, their recycling and the future recovery of new raw material sources, as well as on an environmentally friendly but still demand-oriented extraction worldwide. The extraction of heavy metals from their ores with the ...