Project Grant DESC0022761

This Cooperative Agreement, awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (CFDA 81.089 - Fossil Energy Research and Development), plans to conduct pilot testing to obtain aqueous solutions rich in mixed rare earth elements, critical minerals, and materials such as manganese, cobalt, nickel, and strontium, as well as a lithium-containing raffinate. The total funding amount is $6,390,593, with a performance period from September 1, 2024 to August 31,...

This $275,999 National Science Foundation Project Grant supports the development of an environmentally friendly rare earth element extraction process from recycled fluorescent light bulb powder. The awardee, IM Technologies LLC, will engineer a prototype reactor system that uses precision ultra-high temperature heating to evaporate and subsequently condense targeted rare earth constituents from light bulb waste. Research tasks include optimizing thermal energy applications to efficiently extract...

This Project Grant award from the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (CFDA 81.049) provides $206,497.00 to CF Technologies, Inc. to conduct research and development on chromatographic separation of rare earth elements. CF Technologies, a for-profit manufacturer and small disadvantaged business, specializes in CO2 extraction, fractionation, separation and chromatography. Through this one-year grant awarded on July 10, 2023, the company will research and...

This $289,851 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Integrative Activities (IA) program supports research at the University of Delaware that aims to develop new pathways for the recovery and recycling of rare-earth elements (REEs). The project focuses on investigating the formation and properties of high-temperature REE-sulfate liquids, with the goal of advancing alternative REE extraction and separation technologies that could enable more circular manufacturing...

Phoenix Tailings Inc. received a $250,000 Project Grant award from the Department of Energy Office of Science on June 28, 2021 to develop an advanced low-energy technique for producing rare earth metals using a mixed halide molten salt. The award is part of the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (CFDA 81.049), which supports basic research to deliver scientific discoveries and tools that transform understanding of nature and advance U.S. energy security and economic...

The Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management awarded a $677,554 Project Grant to The Washington University Office of Sponsored Research Services Division under the Fossil Energy Research and Development program (CFDA 81.089). The grant supports research and development of a novel supercritical fluid extraction and enrichment process to directly recover rare earth elements from solid coal-based resources. The project will be conducted at The Washington University's...

Federal Cooperative Agreement Summary Phoenix Tailings Inc. received a $1.6 million cooperative agreement award dated February 18, 2026, from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E, CFDA 81.135) to develop the SELECT (Selective Extraction via Ligand-Enhanced Complexation and Thermal Separation) project under the RECOVER (Realize Energy-Rich Compound Opportunities Valorizing Extraction from Refuse Waters) initiative. The project will be performed in Woburn, Massachusetts, with a...

This $6,250,000.00 Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management under the Fossil Energy Research and Development (CFDA 81.089) program supports the University of Utah's efforts to develop innovative technologies for critical minerals extraction, separation, and purification. The key objectives of this 3-year project include evaluating physical upgrading methods, environmentally-friendly extraction of rare earth elements...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award to Reegen Inc. for $275,000 will support the development of a clean, biological system for extracting and purifying rare earth elements (REEs) from various waste and end-of-life sources. The project aims to reduce the negative environmental impacts of REE production and decrease U.S. dependence on imported REEs, which are critical for manufacturing modern electronics and sustainable energy...

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) awarded a $200,000 Cooperative Agreement to Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) under the "Science and Technology Projects Related to Coal Mining and Reclamation" CFDA program. The objective is to develop and verify a novel phytomining-based process that enables simultaneous rare earth element (REE) recovery and solid waste reclamation from coal mine...