Sustainable recycling of rare earth elements from electrolysers
June 2, 2025 – Hydrogen electrolyzer cells contain rare earth elements. After their use, these materials are often discarded as scrap. A research team at TU Bergakademie Freiberg has now developed a method to recover these recyclable materials from used electrolyzer cells, making them directly reusable for new cells.
The team achieved leaching yields of over 89 percent for all elements except gadolinium (Gd), which still achieved at least 81 percent. This leaching process enables electrolyte separation, allowing both the electrolyte residue and the leachate solution to be processed separately in subsequent recycling steps.
Their findings are currently published in the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy under the title:
‘Leaching of Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cells for a Circular Hydrogen Economy.’
