Rare earth elements (REE) have enabled remarkable technological advancements in the 21<sup>st</sup> century encompassing diverse fields including but not limited to electronics, manufacturing, medical science, and renewable energy. The current global high reliance on REE has thus made them “The Vitamins of Modern Industry”. This can be gauged by the 200% increase in the mining of REE (43000 tons) over the last 5 years in the United States. The total natural RE reserves of the U.S. are at 1.5% of the total world reserves. With the increase in mining of natural REE resources and given the fact that the total minable reserves are about 1.8 million metric tons, scarcity of natural REE is projected in the next decade. Added to this is the high supply risk of Neodymium and Dysprosium used in magnets for clean energy applications. An alternative source of REE which has gained leverage over the last decade is the recycling of REE from E-wastes, swarf, batteries, permanent magnets, and fluorescent lamps. However, the recovery of REE from those sources is still only in limited quantities.  Traditional hydrometallurgical techniques involve the production of REE from RE-fluorides. However, this requires the usage of large amounts of hydrofluoric acid, a potent health hazard. Other viable technologies such as solvent extraction and ion exchange are both time and energy-intensive processes. Metallothermic reduction of rare earth halides is yet another technology that has gained traction over decades of research. The utilization of hydrofluoric acid and the employment of ammonium bifluoride continues to remain areas of concern in metallothermic technology. In our proposed technology, we do not employ the usage of any acids to produce rare earth fluoride. Additionally, the composition of our fluoride nullifies the need for the addition of any flux to carry out the metallothermic reduction process.

Environmentally friendly reduction of anhydrous rare earth fluorides derived from the e-waste recycling

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