RARE EARTH AND CRITICAL ELEMENTS RECOVERY VIA SELECTIVE MEMBRANES: AI/ML-GUIDED MEMBRANE DEVELOPMENT

There is a need in the US for improved methodologies to separate rare earth elements (REEs) from existing underutilized waste streams, as these REEs are not prevalent in the earthĺs crust at minable concentrations. These critical elements are necessary for many clean energy technologies (such as permanent magnets in wind turbines), defense applications, and other modern technologies. Nearly 80% of the nationĺs supply of critical elements comes from foreign sources. Therefore, we seek to improve the domestic supply of lanthanide elements through an innovative membrane technology that will be optimized through an AI/ML approach to predict and guide membrane structure, selectivity to critical lanthanide elements, and extraction/rejection rates through material design, experimental design, and data analysis. Triton Systems, Inc. and its team propose to design, synthesize, and develop a modular organic membrane, guided by an AI/ML approach, to selectively extract critical elements from REE rich waste streams. These membranes can be chemically tailored to tune separation affinity, kinetics of extraction/rejection, homogeneous or heterogeneous extraction, and can selectively release bound REE. In Phase I, we will i) develop a simulation-based approach to guide tuning and optimization of our proposed REE separation membrane, ii) design and synthesize a robust, modular membrane for selective REE extraction, iii) assess the performance of our AI/ML-guided membrane in REE-rich solutions, and iv) refine our membrane based on the inputs of our modeling and experimental validation studies. Upon success of the program, Triton Systems Inc. will have developed a physical model and design protocols that predict membrane structure and performance for REE separations from solution, aided by appropriate experimental validation from a subset of predicted structures. Refinement and scale up of these membranes, and their integration and demonstration in REE extraction processes will demonstrate their value to the industry and support their further development and ultimate commercialization. Beyond REEs, our model may be utilized to design membranes for the separation of non-lanthanide elements on the U.S. Geological Survey List of Critical Minerals, such as the d-block elements Ti, Ni, Zn, Mn, Ru, Ir, etc.