European Training Network for Zero-Waste Valorisation of Bauxite Residue (Red Mud)

On April 1-5, 2019, the 6th Slag Valorisation Symposium took place. More than 200 persons experienced at first hand that slag valorisation has been transformed from an academic concept into an industrial success story.

In the framework of the EU MSCA-ETN REDMUD project, the occurrence mode of selected rare earths in neutralised-leached bauxite residue was studied by KU Leuven and NTUA. The work is published in Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy.

Recently the use of lead is being called into question by some policy makers. To provide a firm metallurgical background on its crucial role in the Circular Economy, the EU ETN SOCRATES team has just published a new Policy Brief.

In the framework of ETN REDMUD, an integrated process was developed by KU Leuven and RWTH Aachen to selectively recover Fe and REEs from slags produced during smelting of bauxite residue. The work is published in Hydrometallurgy.

New PhD on innovative technologies for REE recovery from bauxite residue On January 23rd, 2018, Rodolfo Marin Rivera obtained his PhD degree in Chemical Engineering. He successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Innovative technologies for rare earth element recovery from bauxite residue‘. (Leuven, 23/01/2019) The research was supervised by Prof. Tom Van Gerven (promoter), Prof. Koen Binnemans (co-promotor) and Dr. Ghania Ounoughene ...

ETN DEMETER proudly presents the flagship product of this 4 year-project: the first recyclable e-motor based on recycled NdFeB magnets. Featuring two of the DEMETER Researchers, the video highlights the e-motor’s ecobenefits.

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.

How is Europe going to deal with the legacy of more than 500,000 landfills? More than 50 experts debated this question during the 2nd ELFM Seminar in the European Parliament (November 20, 2018), which was hosted by Belgian MEP Hilde Vautmans (ALDE Group). A detailed analysis of this event has now been published as a ETN NEW-MINE Policy Brief, authored ...

The EIT-labelled Master Programme on Sustainable Materials (SUMA) welcomed 24 enthusiastic students in September 2018. This 3rd cohort is the biggest cohort for SUMA so far, with selected candidates coming from all over the world.

Gwen Bailey, ESR 15 in EU MSCA-ETN DEMETER, was selected as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Association Fellow of the Week. Gwen will feature in the panel debate “Are REEs still critical?” in the DEMETER Symposium (February 2019).