{"id":180136,"date":"2021-05-26T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=536265"},"modified":"2021-05-26T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T10:30:00","slug":"the-plan-to-turn-coal-country-into-a-rare-earth-powerhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/05\/26\/the-plan-to-turn-coal-country-into-a-rare-earth-powerhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"The plan to turn coal country into a rare earth powerhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
At an abandoned coal mine just outside the city of Gillette, Wyoming, construction crews are getting ready to break ground on a 10,000-square-foot building that will house state-of-the-art laboratories and manufacturing plants. Among the projects at the facility, known as the Wyoming Innovation Center<\/a>, will be a pilot plant<\/a> that aims to takes coal ash \u2014 the sooty, toxic waste left behind after coal is burned for energy \u2014 and use it to extract rare earths, elements that play an essential role in everything from cell phones and LED screens to wind turbines and electric cars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The pilot plant<\/a> in Wyoming is a critical pillar of an emerging effort led by the Department of Energy, or DOE, to convert the toxic legacy<\/a> of coal mining in the United States into something of value. Similar pilot plants and research projects<\/a> are also underway in states including West Virginia, North Dakota, Utah, and Kentucky. If these projects are successful, the Biden administration hopes that places like Gillette will go from being the powerhouses of the fossil fuel era to the foundation of a new domestic supply chain that will build tomorrow\u2019s energy systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an April report<\/a> on revitalizing fossil fuel communities, administration officials wrote that coal country is \u201cwell-positioned\u201d to become a leader in harvesting critical materials from the waste left behind by coal mining and coal power generation. Several days later, the DOE awarded<\/a> a total of $19 million to 13 different research groups that plan to assess exactly how much rare earth material is contained in coal and coal waste, as well as explore ways to extract it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have these resources that are otherwise a problem,\u201d said Sarma Pisupati<\/a>, the director of the Center for Critical Minerals at Penn State University and one of the grant recipients. \u201cWe can use those resources to extract valuable minerals for our independence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those minerals would come at a critical moment. The rare earth elements neodymium and dysprosium, in particular, are essential to the powerful magnets used in offshore wind turbines and electric vehicle motors. A recent report by the International Energy Agency projected<\/a> that by 2040, the clean energy sector\u2019s demand for these minerals could be three to seven times <\/a>greater than it is today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n