Within the EU H2020 REMAGHIC project, a process was developed by KU Leuven & TECNALIA to recover rare earths from CRT phosphor waste based on roasting and leaching with the green solvents acetic acid and methanesulphonic acid.

New work by SIM² KU Leuven researchers published in Resources Conservation and Recycling demonstrates that the government policies have a much larger influence on the rare-earth supply chain disruption than physical disruptions.

SIM² KU Leuven researchers developed a new, selective method to recover indium from iron-rich solutions. This work, funded through EU METGROW+, was published as a golden open access paper in Separation and Purification Technology.

SIM² KU Leuven researchers developed a new method to recover valuable rare earth elements from waste CRT phosphor powder, using selective sulfation roasting and water leaching. This work was published in Hydrometallurgy.

In the Science@leuven Journal (Issue 62, p. 14-17) Siska Waelkens interviewed Prof. Koen Binnemans and Dr. Peter Tom Jones about their work in the field of sustainable metallurgy and their wider research valorisation strategy.

On 12-11-2018, NEMO, CROCODILE and DEMETER were presented at the 2nd annual Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) event, which was co-organised by the European Commission and the H2020 project SCRREEN during the Raw Materials Week.

In September 2018 Willem Vereycken started his PhD in the SOLVOMET Group on solvent extraction of critical metals using ionic liquids in milliflow applications. He is nominated for the “EOS Scriptieprijs 2018” for his MSc thesis.

KU Leuven researchers developed new leaching solutions to dissolve metals, based on non-volatile ionic liquids (ILs). This work on dissolving gold without gas formation was published in Green Chemistry.

The extraction of lanthanides from nitrate media with basic nitrate extractants shows a remarkable decreasing trend when going from left to right in the lanthanide series. The Binnemans SOLVOMET group is taking the first step.

On 9-11 October 2018, Prometia organised its 2018 Prometia Techtour in Belgium, with stops in Liège, Leuven and Antwerp. SIM² KU Leuven hosted two lab visits and several seminars. Andrea Martos (IDENER) liked what she saw.