Rare Earth Reduction: A Technological Overview of State-of-the-Art Technology and Novel Developments

Rare earthsRare earth are critical to the future of green technology, especially for wind turbines and electric vehicle motors. However, reducing these rare earthsRare earth into the metals is challenging metallurgically and economically. An overview will be given on the state-of-the-art processes for reducing rare earthsRare earth from the rare earth oxides to the rare earthRare earth metal. The benefits and the challenges of the state-of-the art processes will be presented. An overview of novel processes being developed in the field will also be given. These novel processes range from innovations in metallothermic reduction and molten fluoride electrolysis to ionic liquidIonic Liquid electrolysis of rare earthRare earth oxides and attempts of reducing rare earthRare earth oxides using solid oxide membrane electrolysis. This lays the foundation for direction of future trends on commercial rare earthRare earth reduction technology.