Rare Earth: This Might Be a Savior for Coal Industry
Duke University Pratt School of Engineering has published a study that says ash created from from the Appalachian Mountains coal mining is ultra-valuable and could be exploited.
The unanswered questions are how environmentally-dangerous will be extraction process of the rare metals, and what will be the cost?
The first study of the content of rare earth elements in U.S. coal ashes found what “could be the proverbial golden goose for hard-to-find materials critical to clean energy and other emerging technologies.”
The US Department of Energy identifies rare earth elements such as neodymium, europium, terbium, dysprosium, yttrium and erbium as critical to clean energy and other emerging technologies.
The study, Trends in the Rare Earth Element Content of U.S.-Based Coal Combustion Fly Ashes, is published in Environmental Science and Technology.
