The company says a geared solution is more efficient, uses a lot
less rare earth materials and will need to be serviced less often compared with a direct drive turbine.
Their developer, Miro Zorič, chose zinc air chemistry specifically due to zinc air battery production requiring only abundant raw materials without
requiring rare earth materials.
With their innovative (and proprietary) approach to recycling a pair of
critical rare earth materials, the REEcycle team introduced the energy industry to an innovative way to turn waste into a domestic stream of rare -LSB-...]
«There is a lot of
rare earth material out there in used products; extracting from that urban mine will be viable,» argues King of Ames Lab, which also has scientists working on better extraction methods for, say, neodymium from ores or old generators.
We will also look at the use of alternative materials to both reduce the use of
rare earth materials and for systems optimisation.
In September 2010, for instance, China halted the supply of
rare earth materials to Japan in response to the detention of Chinese fishermen in disputed waters.
In the last year, the U.S. has lodged complaints about Chinese subsidies for its wind energy industry, as well as China's restrictions on the exportation of
rare earth materials.