Latest news with #ruthenium
Associated Press
30-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
From Waste to Strategic Metals: Circular Materials Achieves First Industrial-Scale Recoveries Under the Critical Raw Materials Act
PADUA, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 30, 2025-- Circular Materials announces two major milestones under the Critical Raw Materials Act: the recovery from industrial wastewater of the first kilogram of ruthenium and the first ton of nickel, preventing the release of heavy metals into the environment. These results were secured through strong collaborations with two leading companies in surface treatments: LEM, core company of the LEM INDUSTRIES Group, specialized in the luxury sector, and Argos Surface Technologies Group, a leader in industrial coatings. This success comes just a few months after the European Commission recognized Recover-IT as a strategic project, confirming the pivotal role of Circular Materials in securing critical raw material supplies, increasing recycling, and reducing the EU's dependence on imports. Ruthenium and Nickel: crucial metals for a sustainable future Ruthenium, a noble metal from the platinum group, is essential for cutting-edge sectors such as advanced electronics, green hydrogen production, fine chemicals, fuel cells, and luxury goods. Nickel, on the other hand, is a critical element, essential in advanced steels and lithium batteries —pillars of the energy transition. Circular Materials' proprietary SWaP (Supercritical Water Precipitation) technology delivers exceptional effectiveness and versatility to recover precious and industrially intensive metals. A revolutionary environmental impact: carbon negative and beyond Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the process applied to ruthenium and nickel reveals a remarkable environmental benefit. For ruthenium, emissions are reduced by over 99.6% compared to traditional mining. Even more impressive is the result for nickel: the SWaP process not only reduces emissions but becomes carbon negative, actively avoiding the total CO₂ production associated with conventional methods. ' Circular Materials strengthens its technological leadership and, together with its partners, builds a solid and integrated circular supply chain capable of transformingindustrial waste into new resources, preventing the loss of critical materials,' says Marco Bersani, Founder & CEO of Circular Materials. ' With the industrial-scale recovery of ruthenium and nickel, we are shaping a strategy that reduces dependence on external sources, lowers the environmental impact of production processes, and valorizes waste streams that until now have been dispersed '. In a global context marked by the impacting scarcity of critical resources and the need to ensure a secure and sustainable supply, Circular Materials stands out as a key player in a new European industrial paradigm focused on recovering the resources the world needs most. About Us: Circular Materials Circular Materials is a groundbreaking company with proprietary technology for the recovery of strategic metals from industrial wastewater through a sustainable and highly efficient process. The company has developed and patented the Supercritical Water Precipitation (SWaP) technology, which simultaneously treats wastewater and recovers metal, eliminating toxic sludge production and significantly reducing environmental impact, both in terms of waste and emissions. For more information: View source version on Media contact: Tiziana Sarto –[email protected] KEYWORD: ITALY EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: NATURAL RESOURCES SUSTAINABILITY ENVIRONMENT OTHER MANUFACTURING RECYCLING GREEN TECHNOLOGY OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES MANUFACTURING SOURCE: Circular Materials Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 06/30/2025 02:00 AM/DISC: 06/30/2025 02:00 AM
Gizmodo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Earth's Core Is Leaking Gold Into Volcanoes, Scientists Say
Earth's core is apparently a bit leakier than scientists expected. In a new study published in Nature, researchers describe evidence that traces of precious metals from Earth's metallic core, including ruthenium and gold, are seeping up into volcanic rocks on the surface. The University of Göttingen-led team examined lava from Hawaii's volcanic islands and discovered an unusually high concentration of a rare isotope: ruthenium-100, an isotope that's more common in Earth's core than in the rocky mantle. The isotope's presence suggested that the lava had somehow picked up material from the planet's deepest layer—more than 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) beneath your feet. 'When the first results came in, we realized that we had literally struck gold,' said Nils Messling, a geochemist at the University of Göttingen, in a university release. 'Our data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into the Earth's mantle above.' Earth's core formed over 4 billion years ago and contains more than 99.999% of the planet's gold supply. But as Nature reported, previous studies indicated that some volcanic rocks consisted of material from Earth's core, raising questions about how the heck that material got to the surface. Now, thanks to ultra-high precision isotopic analysis developed by the Göttingen team, researchers were able to resolve previously undetectable differences in ruthenium isotopes—an achievement that dialed the team into the relationship between Earth's center and its most explosive sites on the surface. 'Our findings not only show that the Earth's core is not as isolated as previously assumed,' said Professor Matthias Willbold, also of the University of Göttingen, 'We can now also prove that huge volumes of super-heated mantle material–several hundreds of quadrillion metric tonnes of rock–originate at the core-mantle boundary and rise to the Earth's surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii.' The team's findings indicate that Earth's supply of precious metals near the surface may owe some of its origins to this deep-seated reserve of molten rock. Studying other hotspots—think of Iceland, Japan, and other regions crammed with active volcanoes—could clarify how much of the material brought to the surface originates from the boundary between Earth's core and its mantle.
