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The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is sponsoring a hybrid workshop on 25 July to provide an overview and facilitate technical discussion regarding the Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements (SPREE) Advanced Research Concept (ARC) opportunity.
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The SPREE ARC opportunity is soliciting ideas to explore the following question: How can we purify Department of Defense (DoD)-relevant rare earth elements (REEs) using environmentally sustainable, energy-efficient, and commercially viable techniques that can be incorporated by the US domestic mining sector?
REEs – made up of 17 elements, including scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanide series – of particular concern in REE extraction, separation, and purification from a complex feedstock can be environmentally degrading, energy inefficient, and difficult to permit in the United States and Australia.
DARPA Innovation fellow Dr Rebecca Chmiel said, “Solving the technological challenge of separating rare earths from each other is critical for establishing a secure domestic supply chain of strategic materials and requires a re-examination of the fundamental physics and chemistries of these elements.”
This decision is critical following the decline in US and broader Western REE refining, with the US importing nearly 100 per cent of REEs used in commercial products and exporting some domestically mined REE minerals for economic processing overseas, compared to being a major global supplier from the 1960s to the 1990s.
“The goal of the SPREE workshop is to support researchers with great new ideas by providing governmental and industry insight into the field and information about how to apply for the SPREE opportunity,” Dr Chmiel added.
The overwhelming dependence on foreign sources for processing and purification represents a significant vulnerability for the US supply chain, which could be mitigated by developing a domestic manufacturing industry to extract and purify REE resources.
Equally troublesome is the byproducts of established methods of extraction and separation of REEs, especially from each other, can be inefficient, energy-intensive, complex, and produce sizeable amounts of hazardous waste due to the use of toxic reagents and solvents.
This results in extensive domestic regulatory and permitting challenges due to predicted environmental impacts that represent a significant commercial barrier for domestic mining and refining of REEs.
DARPA’s SPREE initiative aims to develop novel approaches to separate REEs from a commercially feasible source mixture to a commercially useful product in an economically viable and environmentally friendly method.
The ARC initiative is designed to speed up the pace of innovation by rapidly exploring and analysing a high volume of promising new ideas. For more information about ARC, SPREE solicitation, and to see new topics as they become available, visit here.
The ARC topics are managed by DARPA’s innovation fellows, who include recent PhD graduates (within five years of receiving a doctorate) and active-duty military with STEM degrees. To learn more about the DARPA Innovation Fellowship, current fellows, and how to apply to become a fellow visit here.
The hybrid workshop will be held on Tuesday, 25 July 2023, from 9am – 4pm EDT. The in-person portion of the hybrid workshop will be hosted at the Association of the United States Army Conference and Event Center located at 2425 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201 (www.ausa.org/conference-and-event-center). The online portion will take place via Zoom. Registration is required for all workshop attendees (in-person and online). Registration closes Monday, 24 July 2023 at 12:00pm EDT.
