Midwest Energy Emissions Corp (OTCQB:MEEC), which is known as ME2C Environmental, has partnered with Pennsylvania State University’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences which will evaluate the company's rare earth element (REE) technology’s capture capacity and regeneration potential under certain conditions.
ME2C Environmental said the evaluation and test period is set to run from June through to the end of September. REEs are crucial in the manufacturing of permanent magnets, which are used in wind turbines and electric vehicle engines, as well as other green applications.
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“Our new REE technology, which we are in process of developing, has yielded exciting preliminary results thus far in its ability to capture rare earth elements in an efficient manner while maintaining the purity of these minerals and reducing the amount of caustic solutions used,” John Pavlish, chief technology officer of ME2C Environmental in a statement. “Penn State is a notable leader in the research, development, and testing of REE extraction and purification techniques.”
Pavlish went on to say: “With their assistance in our research, we are more confident than ever in our ability to deliver a commercially viable technology that may be useful in multiple applications related to mineral mining and coal ash. This next phase of our technology’s evaluation with Penn State signifies a pivotal moment in its development, leading to pilot-scale testing.”
Roughly 80% of all REEs are imported from China allowing the country to dominate and dictate the market for the last two decades. REE imports were a hot topic amid the trade negotiations between China and the US in 2018.
That year, the US Department of Energy reported that the global demand for rare earth elements was roughly 150,000 tons, and US demand specifically was 16,500 tons.
ME2C Environmental believes a domestic REE supply chain is vital given US President Joe Biden administration’s focus on electric transportation and forthcoming environmental regulations.
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