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The University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center is studying “rare earth” elements in lignite coal.
Those elements are essential for such things as cellphones, batteries and other electronic devices. The United States imports most of those elements from other countries, such as China.
"We are seeing we have high concentrations in coals, and lignite in particular," research center CEO Charles Gorecki told Prairie Public. "And it's just identifying where they are, and working on how you extract them and get them to a processing plant."
Gorecki said those rare earth elements are worth a lot of money -- far more than the coal.
"That could be an industry for the future for North Dakota," he said.
The elements are present in both the lignite coal as mined, and in the coal ash left over when the lignite is burned, according to Gorecki.
The EERC also is researching extracting graphene from lignite.
"Graphene is a single layer of carbon molecules in a sheet," Gorecki said. "It's extraordinarily light, and extraordinarily strong."
It could be used in aviation, and it also is valuable, he said.
"Graphene is thousands of dollars per ton, compared with $10 per ton for coal," he said.
Extracting those elements could help keep the lignite industry viable in North Dakota, according to Gorecki. He said that prospect, along with carbon capture technologies being developed, could mean a bright future for lignite.
"At the end of the day, we could have reliable power that we're producing from lignite coal with zero emissions, and on top of that, mining the coal for rare earth elements," Gorecki said. "It could be a win for everybody."
