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On June 21st, Martina Orefice obtained her PhD degree in Chemistry. She successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Solvometallurgical recovery of metal values from Sm‒Co and Nd‒Fe‒B permanent magnets”.

Within the framework of the ETN DEMETER project rare-earth permanent magnets were treated with solvometallurgical solutions to remove the metalllic coating prior to direct recycling. The work is published in RSC Advances

Last week the global association for rare-earth industry stakeholders, was officially erected. SIM² KU Leuven is happy to have contributed to this milestone for the global rare earth community and will continue to support “REIA”.

The EU Research Executive Agency selected DEMETER as the Marie Skłodowska Curie project to be featured in the REA 10th anniversary video. Gwen Bailey explains the importance of the DEMETER research for clean mobility in the EU.

MM Milieumagazine, a Dutch monthly magazine that covers clean technologies, has published a feature article on the scarcity of (critical) metals (May 2019, 14-15). SIM² KU Leuven coordinator Peter Tom Jones provided his view on this crucial issue for Europe. ...

Rare-earths permanent magnets were treated with solvometallurgical solutions of Br2 in organic solvents to remove the Ni-Cu-Ni coating prior to direct recycling. A comparison with 2 M HNO3 treatment proved the advantages of the solvometallurgical process.

Electrodeposition of rare earth element-transition metal (REE-TM) from non-aqueous solution is a promising alternative to high-temperature molten-salt electrolysis.

A solvometallurgical route for recycling of SmCo permanent magnets was developed by researchers from the SOLVOMET Group (SIM² KU Leuven). The method is based on non-aqueous solvent extraction to minimize water consumption.

On February 5-7, 2019, the DEMETER Concluding Symposium took place in Leuven. Around 70 experts from 38 organisations and 11 countries participated in the debate about the future of Electric Vehicles and the role of rare-earth permanent magnet phases and motors.

Recently the use of lead is being called into question by some policy makers. To provide a firm metallurgical background on its crucial role in the Circular Economy, the EU ETN SOCRATES team has just published a new Policy Brief.