Doe, national laboratories, academia, business/industry

DOE, national laboratories, academia, business/industry

• DOE, national laboratories, academia, business/industry

• Japan delegation led by Toru Nakayama, NEDO

• New Energy and Industrial Technology and Development Organization (NEDO)
• National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
• Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC)
• Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, METI
• Tohoku University
• Kansai University

Roundtable used an enterprise format: from supply to demand side

• Roundtable used an enterprise format: from supply to demand side

• The most readily available REE resource (other than Mountain Pass mine) is the extant product lines, i.e., reuse and recycling

• New mine finds take at least 10 years to produce (in U.S.)
• Plentiful worldwide phosphate resources with relatively low concentration REE (requires economical extraction/separation)

• Japan’s supply and demand chain is more fully articulated than in U.S.; may have different priorities

Dysprosium and Neodymium for REE magnets [30% reduction]

• Dysprosium and Neodymium for REE magnets [30% reduction]

• Grain refinement and nanostructure techniques
• REE- less/free alloys or other elements

• Cerium for polishing abrasives [30% reduction]

• Composite abrasive technology
• Cerium-free abrasives with reformative polishing techniques

• Europium and Terbium in phosphors for fluorescent lighting [80% reduction]

• Optimized use in manufacturing and lighting systems
• Materials development in glasses and phosphors

Indium for transparent conducting electrodes [50% reduction]

• Indium for transparent conducting electrodes [50% reduction]

• New compositions, manufacturing methods, and high performance nano-particles
• ZnO-based replacement technology

• Platinum Group Metals for emission control catalysts [50% reduction]

• Reduction with PGM aggregation inhibition structure
• Substitute materials using transition metals

• Tungsten for hard metal tools [ 30% reduction]

• Hybrid and complex-structured hard cutting tools
• Titanium carbon nitride cermet and coating technology

Platforms for exchange of information and ideas

• Platforms for exchange of information and ideas

• Virtual data bases and networks
• Research results, tools, methods, lessons learned, best practices

• Human capital development

• Education and training for new and transitional professionals
• Develop market cohorts: business, economics, legal political, socio-environmental

• Lifecycle and strategic risk management studies

• Strategies for sustainability and R&D activities
• Evaluate regional and global market developments

Build fundamental scientific and engineering capabilities to address exigent and emerging critical materials issues, while pursuing respective target applications

• Build fundamental scientific and engineering capabilities to address exigent and emerging critical materials issues, while pursuing respective target applications

• Reduces the impact of supply chain disparities
• Avoids conflicts in competitive applications
• Example research areas:

• Separations for processing and reprocessing

• Versatile for both raw (mined) and product materials (reuse and recycling)
• Increase separation factors among elements
• Simple and economic, with low impact

Fundamental properties of REE and nano- to micro-science

• Fundamental properties of REE and nano- to micro-science

• Understand the fundamental coordination chemistry of f-element materials
• Explore behavior and performance in various complexes and molecular structures
• Impacts on extraction/separation, reprocessing and manufacturing

• Characterization methods and technologies

• Rapid techniques for quantitative automated mineralogy
• Assay bulk material, no preparation, non-destructive, near real-time
• Supports exploration and mining, processing requirements, and reuse and recycling

Geosciences and recovery

• Geosciences and recovery

• Remote sensing and geochemical exploration to detect and characterize concealed ore deposits
• Target extraction with selective solvents
• Lower cost and impact of mining and recovery

• Computational science, models, and simulation

• Improve approximation methods for modeling f-electron atoms
• Explore methods from atomistic to multi-scale or multi-physics simulations
• Models may be more efficient than producing new compounds or processes

Share the roundtable discussion with other parties

• Share the roundtable discussion with other parties

• Government-to-government interactions between DOE and GOJ agencies

• Individual-to-individual interactions among meeting participants and others

• The next joint discussion may be hosted in Japan in a few months