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Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements (SPREE) is sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The SPREE program targets a wide range of novel techniques to separate Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from each other.
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SPREE: Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements | DARPA Department of War organization. SPREE: Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements SPREE: Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements Rare Earth Elements (REEs) comprise 17 elements, including scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanide series.
REEs are used in a range of products and manufacturing processes, including permanent magnets, catalysts, fiber optics, and phosphor displays, which are, critical to wind turbines, cell phones, and electric vehicles, among other modern technologies.
However, REE extraction, separation, and purification from a complex feedstock can be environmentally degrading, energy inefficient, and difficult to permit in the U.S. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, the U.S. was the world’s major supplier of REEs. Today, the U.S. imports nearly 100% of REEs used in commercial products and exports some domestically mined REE minerals for economic processing overseas.
This dependence on foreign sources for processing and purification represents a significant vulnerability for the U.S. supply chain, which could be mitigated by developing a domestic manufacturing industry to extract and purify REE resources within the U.S. However, widely-utilized methods of extraction and separation of REEs, especially from each other, can be inefficient, energy-intensive, complex, and/or produce sizeable amounts of hazardous waste due to the use of toxic reagents and solvents, resulting in domestic permitting challenges due to predicted environmental impacts.
As a result, there is a significant commercial barrier for domestic mining and refining of REEs. Unlike DARPA’s Environmental Microbes as a BioEngineering Resource (EMBER) program , which seeks to separate and purify REEs using novel biotechnology and biomolecules, SPREE targets a wide range of novel techniques to separate REEs from each other.
Since REEs have similar physical and chemical properties and occur together in deposits, separation of individual elements is challenging but necessary to provide a highly pure domestic REE supply.
SPREE will address the following question: How can we purify Department of Defense (DoD)-relevant REEs using environmentally sustainable, energy-efficient, and commercially viable techniques that can be incorporated by the U.S. domestic mining sector? This topic has concluded its research efforts. DARPA Seeks Innovators to Accelerate Pace of Scientific Discovery
According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Not explicitly stated, but DARPA generally funds universities, industry, and government laboratories. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements (SPREE) is funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
Yes — this listing is flagged as national in scope, so applicants across the U.S. may apply, subject to the sponsor's other eligibility criteria.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
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