Jeff Bielicki, associate professor in civil environmental and geodetic engineering and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University, co-authored a study published in the journal Environmental Engineering Science titled Recovering Rare Earth Elements from Coal Mine Drainage Using Industrial Byproducts: Environmental and Economic Consequences. Other study co-authors include Marcos Miranda, Soomin Chun, and Chin-Min Cheng. Other team members include Ohio State professors John Lenhart and Tarunjit Butalia. 

Bielicki and his team patented a process that uses passive approaches by which they were able to trap and neutralize pollutants from coal mine drainage from rivers across Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and produce rare earth elements. Through this process, they could capture various metals such as erbium, neodymium and europium.

This research can help address coal waste disposal and the environmental repercussions of mining in terms of costs and its impact on human health and the ecosystem. 

This work was supported by the Environmental Research Education Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.

To learn more, visit Turning coal mine drainage into a source of rare minerals at Ohio State News.