CRITICAL ELEMENTS FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION: OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESSES FOR THE RECOVERY OF RARE EARTHS FROM WEEE AND INDUSTRIAL WASTE FULL

摘要

Lanthanum, cerium, yttrium and europium are some of the rare earths (REs) that arc used in electronic devices of last generation, in the field of Hi Tech. The growth of the world demand for these devices has led to an increment of the demand of raw materials (ores) that contain REs from the producers. The main problem to supply these raw materials is related to the Chinese monopoly in the field of rare earths extraction from ores. This has led to the necessity to develop processes for the recovery of REs from alternative sources, principally from wastes, in particular from WEEE and from other industrial wastes rich in REs, giving a great impulse to the development of the Green Economy.