European Training Network for the Design and Recycling of Rare-Earth Permanent Magnet Motors and Generators in Hybrid and Full Electric Vehicles (DEMETER)

On May 28-31, 2017, more than 200 people took part in the 2nd Conference on European Rare Earth Resources in Santorini, Greece. Peter Tom Jones (SIM² KU Leuven) provides a personal evaluation through his “six lessons learned”.

On May 12, 2017, Sofía Riaño obtained her PhD degree at KU Leuven in the framework of the MC-ITN EREAN project. Her PhD covers the “Recovery of Neodymium and Dysprosium from NdFeB Magnets using Ionic Liquid Technology”.

The EU Horizon 2020 projects EREAN and DEMETER have just published a new (joint) Policy Brief on the challenges with respect to the recycling of hybrid and electric vehicles ((H)EVs).

On May 8, 2017, Joris Roosen obtained his PhD degree at KU Leuven for his work on the recovery of critical metals from dilute aqueous waste streams by adsorption on functionalised biopolymers.

Metallurgy is a key enabler of a circular economy. Its digitalization is the metallurgical Internet of Things. This the EIT summer school will illustrate some of these concepts with hands-on training (17-20/07 in Leuven).

The ETN NEW-MINE team has just launched its new animation video on Enhanced Landfill Mining. Using graphic designs and animations the film explains the complex ELFM flow sheet. Star presenter is Giovanna Sauve.

In 2013 the FP7 EURARE project was initiated with as goal to develop sustainable exploitation schemes for Europe’s rare-earth ore deposits. Recently, an overview article was published in the Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

Apple just announced that it plans to stop relying on mined rare earth minerals and metals to make their products, and instead use only recycled sources. Read the full story in the article by Zoë Schlanger.

In the framework of the ETN DEMETER project SIM² KU Leuven researchers have published a milestone paper on the sustainability aspects of hybrid and electric vehicles (H(E)Vs). The paper was co-authored by Leiden University.

The position paper “Solvometallurgy: an emerging branch of extractive metallurgy” is now available as an open access paper from the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy website. The paper presents ten reasons to use solvometallurgy.