A new discovery is challenging the inherent understanding of humanity: the coal ash left behind after the burning of fossil fuels is not just dirty garbage, but it actually contains a valuable treasure that countries around the world are eagerly seeking – rare earth elements.
According to CNN, scientists analyzed coal ash from power plants across the United States and found that it may contain up to 11 million tons of rare earth elements, nearly eight times the domestic reserves in the United States. Based on a recent study from the University of Texas at Austin, these rare earth elements are worth around $8.4 billion.
Bridget Scanlon, a research author and professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, stated that this discovery provides a significant domestic potential source of rare earth elements without the need for new mining.
“This truly embodies the concept of ‘turning waste into treasure’,” she said. “We are essentially trying to close the loop by utilizing waste and recovering resources from waste.”
These so-called rare earth elements are a group of metallic elements such as scandium, neodymium, and yttrium found, for example, in the Earth’s core. They play a crucial role in clean technologies like electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines. According to the International Energy Agency, demand for these metals is expected to skyrocket to seven times the current levels by 2040.
These metals are not actually rare, but they are difficult to extract and separate from surrounding ores, leading to a demand exceeding supply.
Currently, over 95% of rare earth elements in the United States rely on imports, with the vast majority coming from China, posing supply chain and security issues.
“We need to improve this situation,” Scanlon told CNN, which is why people are starting to look for unconventional sources of rare earth, including coal and coal byproducts.
Compared to directly mining rare earth elements from underground deposits, the content of rare earth elements in coal ash is relatively low, but the advantage is that it is easily accessible. The United States generates about 70 million tons of coal ash annually.
In April, the Biden administration announced a plan to invest $17.5 million in extracting rare earth from coal and its waste.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement at the time that this funding “will enhance our national security, while helping rebuild American manufacturing and revitalize energy and mining communities across the country.”
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 2 billion tons of coal ash are currently stored across the United States.