DARPA builds test bed to enhance REE supply

The Strategic Materials Accelerator & Research Test Bed (SMART) is intended to provide a space to develop new technologies for identifying, extracting, and processing rare earth elements. (University of Utah)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the University of Utah are developing a new test bed aimed at increasing the supply of rare earth elements (REEs) and other strategic materials in the US.

The Strategic Materials Accelerator & Research Test Bed (SMART) would help reduce US reliance on foreign sources for REEs and other critical minerals, according to DARPA. SMART will foster the “development and scaling of new and efficient technologies for identifying, extracting and processing these vital resources”, the agency said in its announcement of SMART on 19 May.

REEs have a wide range of military applications in everything from jet engines to semiconductors and missile guidance systems. Beyond direct military applications, this includes the permanent magnets utilised in mobile phones and other essential technologies.

The new programme will initially provide test facilities for teams from the Environmental Microbes as a Bioengineering Resource (EMBER) programme, which focuses on ‘biomining', a technique to extract or separate REEs from domestic US sources. Proteins or cell-free bio-based systems are used to obtain the REEs from electronics recycling processes, mine waste, and other sources.

Dr Tiffany Prest, programme manager in DARPA's Biological Technologies Office (BTO), told Janes that a test bed to scale up biomining technologies was always planned for EMBER's Phase Three. However, “we realised there's not really anything within the United States that enables researchers or small companies to prove that their technology can scale” in the area.