In a flash of pulses, a challenging industry issue may be resolved.
Chemist and nanotechnology expert James Tour from Rice University in Houston, Texas, believes that the United States could break China’s monopoly in the rare earth field using this method.
The materials needed for this extraction technology are just discarded electronic products. The U.S. has an abundance of such e-waste, which has been piling up. Tour’s research team has developed a method to rapidly extract rare earth metals from these waste materials.
“We can extract one metal first, and then extract another metal,” he explained to The Epoch Times. “It’s really that simple.”
Professor Tour’s proposed solution is the flash Joule heating technology: rapidly heating the material to high temperatures in the thousands of degrees, causing the metal to vaporize. The vaporized metal mixes with chlorine gas, transforming into chlorides that precipitate at different temperatures.
Tour explained that, like an incandescent light bulb, this technology works by passing an electric current through the raw material. However, while the incandescent light bulb generates continuous light by continuously passing electricity, in the metal processing process, energy is transmitted in the form of short bursts, achieving rapid heating within milliseconds.
“Metals can be recycled infinitely, so we can recycle metals and continuously reuse them,” he said. Tour stated that traditional metal extraction methods are quite “tedious,” while his proposed solution aims for simplicity.
“Just a flash of pulses, and it’s done.”
In today’s circumstances, speed is more crucial than ever. The U.S. is racing against time to bring rare earth production back domestically, partly due to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party. In October this year, the CCP threatened significant restrictions on rare earth exports.
Washington secured a year-long trade truce agreement and now has only a short time to address the shortage of rare earth supply. Constructing and operating a mine could take up to 15 years.
Tour stated that his technology will help the U.S. achieve a faster path to rare earth supply. “It will provide us with a roadmap to independence,” he said.
He mentioned that his invention is modular. “It only requires an investment of a few tens of millions of dollars to get this system up and running. For this type of manufacturing industry, the required funding is not considered much.”
Rare earth elements are a subclass of 17 critical minerals and are essential components of electric vehicles, wind turbines, smartphones, missiles, and more.
Currently, China holds a central position in this crucial global production chain. According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) based in Paris, over 90% of global rare earth magnets are produced in China. Furthermore, China is the sole supplier of certain elements like samarium. Samarium, with high-temperature resistance, is widely used in fighter jets and nuclear reactors.
This dominant position stems from decades of strategic investments, massive national subsidies, and aggressive market manipulation measures by the Chinese Communist Party, which have stifled foreign competitors.
Of course, decisions made by the United States have also played a role.
Until 1991, the U.S. was the leading global producer of rare earths, with the Mountain Pass Mine in California supplying most of the world’s rare earths. Following environmental issues, the mine was forced to shut down for many years. It was during this time that China began to establish itself in the rare earth mining sector.
Despite opposition from the Pentagon, in 1995, the U.S. government approved a deal that handed over the leading rare earth magnet business, Magnequench, a subsidiary of General Motors, to a Chinese agent group, effectively relinquishing critical defense technologies and manufacturing to China.
In 2004, Magnequench closed its Indiana factory and shifted operations to China. The next year, Beijing began imposing export taxes on rare earths.
Time flies, and today, 20 years later, the U.S.’s reliance on China’s mineral resources has deepened.
“We didn’t realize at the time how significant what we were selling was to our country,” Tour reflected.
As early as 1976, the U.S. enacted laws regulating the recycling and disposal of electronic waste.
In the years that followed, the surge in e-waste gave rise to a new recycling industry. However, this industry has struggled to keep up with the growing demand for e-waste. According to the United Nations (UN), e-waste is currently the fastest-growing type of waste, with a growth rate five times that of the recycling rate.
The latest data from the Global E-waste Monitor in November 2024 shows that in 2022, the U.S. generated 7.2 million tons of e-waste, accounting for about one-eighth of the global total. This figure is equivalent to around 46 pounds of e-waste per person in the U.S. every year.
“We have many tailing mines that can be exploited, and we also have tons of printed circuit boards piling up and continuously increasing,” Tour said.
He stated that the technology they have developed can clean up these worsening nightmare-like trash heaps and turn them into “treasures.”
“By doing this, everyone wins.”
Currently, Lucas Eddy, the technical development manager of Flash Metals USA, the Texas subsidiary of Metallium, an Australian industrial technology company, is witnessing this concept being put into practice.
“Trash becomes trash not because it’s bad, but because it cannot be utilized,” he explained to The Epoch Times.
Eddy stated that this is where flash Joule heating technology shines, and their factory in Texas has been granted permission to use this metal recovery method.
“This is the future of flash Joule heating technology.”
Joule heating technology, which generates heat through electrical conductivity, first appeared in the 1840s. Today, this technology is utilized in appliances like toasters, electric heaters, ovens, and hair dryers, becoming an indispensable part of every household.
Previously, no one had considered using this technology to handle e-waste.
Inspired by a scientific paper titled “Rice lab turns trash into valuable graphene in a flash,” the team of researchers from Rice University applied this technology to carbon materials, discovering a rapid and low-cost method to produce high-quality graphene. They then began exploring the potential of flash Joule heating technology in extracting the much-needed rare earth metals in the U.S.
Eddy, a graduate of Rice University’s Tour Lab in 2025, joined the project team early in 2021 when this technological application shift was just beginning.
“These chemical reactions are literally happening right before your eyes,” he said. “You will see various colors bursting out like rainbows.”
In the chemical reactions, each color change represents the precipitation of a metal element. Eddy pointed out that rare earth elements typically have the highest boiling points and, therefore, often precipitate last, usually in the form of white powder.
Tour mentioned that the project has captured the interest of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which required them to enhance the industrial applicability of this technology. The team secured a federal contract dedicated to lowering boiling points. They experimented with various forms of fluoride and chlorine, ultimately settling on using chlorine gas.
Eddy stated that this step is “revolutionary.”
So far, the primary method for electronic waste recycling has involved immersing electronic components in strong acids, generating a large amount of toxic chemicals. Another method is heating materials in a furnace, a high-energy process that requires substantial initial investment and additional purification steps.
Converting metals into chlorides can bypass this intermediate step.
According to a paper co-authored by Tour, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences titled “Sustainable separation of rare earth elements from wastes,” the extremely rapid heating and cooling rates can also reduce energy consumption, up to 87%.
“This method is cleaner and faster,” Tour said.
In addition to its application in the rare earth metal field, this technology also presents broad environmental application prospects.
Researchers have used this method to extract toxic metals from red mud (a byproduct of aluminum production), yielding materials rich in aluminum that can be used to manufacture tiles or reintroduced into the regular aluminum production cycle.
Tour stated that jewelers have reached out to them hoping to extract gold from electronic products, and others are exploring purifying glass from smartphones after successfully extracting lithium. Even the plastic components on printed circuit boards are useful. At high temperatures, the plastic decomposes into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, with hydrogen being a fuel and cornerstone of chemical manufacturing.
Tour explained that this process produces almost no waste.
“For our country, this is a significant victory. For the environment, this is a significant victory. And hopefully, for investors, this is also a significant victory.”
Currently, the project team is still optimizing the temperature control system to enhance metal purity. However, based on their current results, a vast market already exists.
In September, the Pentagon awarded Metallium a Phase One contract to extract the critical mineral gallium from waste streams.
Their commercial-scale factory outside Houston is progressing as planned and is expected to start operations in early 2026. Tour stated that their goal is to process one ton of printed circuit boards daily by January next year and increase the daily processing capacity to 20 tons by September. Additionally, the company is constructing two more factories in Massachusetts and Virginia.
Tour revealed that when he presented this idea to a group of NATO generals, one of them stood up and said, “This will prevent wars from happening.”
“Most wars are fought over resources, such as water resources, oil resources, and mineral resources,” Tour said. “People fight for resources and kill each other for resources.”
From Asia to Australia and Saudi Arabia, U.S. President Donald Trump has been building reliable alliances globally to counter the CCP’s control of critical mineral resources.
Tour expressed his satisfaction in seeing his innovative achievement evolving into a potential national security asset.
“Being able to solve critical problems that a country faces—it’s every scientist’s dream.”