Sec. 401. Department of Energy grants for extraction and purification of rare earth elements
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The purpose of this section is to provide Department of Energy grants for the development of more environmentally acceptable and less expensive ways to separate and process rare earth elements, which would increase the likelihood of economic production of rare earth elements in North America. In this section: The term rare earth element means a chemical element in the periodic table from lanthanum (atomic number 57) through lutetium (atomic number 71). The term rare earth element includes the similar chemical elements scandium (atomic number 21) and yttrium (atomic number 39).
The term Secretary means the Secretary of Energy. The Secretary shall establish a program in the Department of Energy under which the Secretary shall provide to applicants grants for the development and demonstration of new processes— to extract and purify rare earth elements using environmentally benign technologies; and that would result in— the separation of individual rare earth elements; and the production of solid rare earth salts, which are the materials necessary for the manufacturing of downstream products.
In providing grants under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall provide to applicants grants for the testing of green chemistry processes in the separation process for rare earth element extraction, with an emphasis on closed loop systems that can produce relatively heavy rare earth elements such as dysprosium (Dy), terbium (Tb), and europium (Eu). The Secretary shall develop, construct, and demonstrate a pilot plant to provide proof of concept for rare earth element separation and processing using molecular recognition technology.
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this section, of which not less than $7,500,000 shall be made available to provide grants under subsection (c)(2).