Research and development theme: Development of high-efficiency smelting technology

Sub-theme Leader: Prof. Toshiyuki Nohira
Project Period：FY2017 ‒ FY2022

We are developing a technology for the direct recovery of rare earth elements from waste materials enriched with specific rare earth elements, such as neodymium magnets, by using molten salt and alloy diaphragms. By taking advantage of the facts that a specific rare-earth-transition metal alloy phase forms at high speed and that only rare-earth ions are selectively dissolved when the formed rare-earth-transition metal alloy is positively polarized, we aim to realize an innovative rare-earth element recycling process.