RHEINISCH-WESTFAELISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE AACHEN

With its 260 institutes in nine faculties, RWTH Aachen university is among the leading European scientific and research institutions. 42,298 students in 126 courses, incl. almost 6,000 international students from more than 120 countries. RWTH (grounded 1870) acknowledges the integration of equality and diversity among its stakeholders as crucial parts of an innovative and dynamic university, which facilitate excellence in research and teaching. The IME Process Metallurgy and Metal Recycling of Technical University Aachen (RWTH Aachen) is Europe’s leading institute for process metallurgy and metal recycling. A staff of 2 chief engineers, 24 PhD assistants and 4 post-docs composes the scientific core of this institute. Research focuses on pyrometallurgical and physical refining technology, vacuum and inert gas metallurgy, process modeling and simulation and production technology of complex alloys, waste prevention and utilization, hydrometallurgy and applied electrochemistry, etc. With its operational demonstration-scale reactors and its large lab-scale research platform in pyro-/hydrometallurgy, IME offers unique equipment and experience, to successfully conduct the scientific research tasks within this proposal.

In SCALE, RWTH is involved in the development of a sustainable process for the low cost production of scandium or aluminum-scandium-alloy via metallothermic reduction. RWTH – IME worked already as a project partner in the previous related project (EURARE) and has lots of experience in the area of REE metal production and metallothermic reduction as well as well-equipped laboratories.

Website: www.rwth-aachen.de

WHAT IS SCANDIUM?

Scandium is a chemical element with symbol Sc and atomic number 21. A silvery-white metallic d-block element, it was discovered in 1879 by spectral analysis of the minerals euxenite and gadolinite from Scandinavia.

Scandium is a rare-earth metal, used in small amounts but with drastic effects on properties of matter. It is a key component in producing high strength Aluminium alloys used in aerospace and 3D printing as well as in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) applications.

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SCANDIUM SUPPLY

Scandium is present in most of the deposits of rare-earth and uranium compounds, but it is extracted from these ores in only a few mines worldwide. Scandium supply is limited due its scarcity and the high cost of its production, which currently takes place in Asia and Russia. Europe has no production of Scandium, but is home to many Scandium end-users and to industries having Scandium in their industrial residues. By converting waste into resources and thus developing a stable and secure EU scandium supply chain to serve the needs of EU aerospace and high tech industry, SCALE project will contribute to reduce dependency on imports of raw materials.

SCALE PROJECT

Scandium is an enabler in vital sectors like clean energy, transport, optics and advanced materials. Despite having a proven set of impressive applications, its volatile price and unreliable supply chain limit their deployment. SCALE develops innovative technologies that can extract economically and sustainably Sc from dilute mediums (<100 mg/L) and upgrade them to pure oxides, metals and alloys at lower energy or material cost. This will be achieved through the development of a number of innovative extraction, separation, refining and alloying technologies that will be validated in an appropriate laboratory and industrial environment to prove their technical and economic feasibility. SCALE builds on the success of previous and on-going European research projects like ENEXAL, EURARE, REECover, REE4EU and REMAGHIC.

SCALE has received funding from the European Community’s Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020/2014-2020) under grant agreement n° 730105