The Rare Earth Elements; These high tech enablers

Jan 31, 2025

This European Parliamentary meeting/webinar is part of a series where we focus on various aspects of individual chemical elements and is a result of our EuChemS Periodic Table highlighting element availability, vulnerability and sustainability.

The rare-earth elements (REE) are a group of 17 elements comprising the metals of group 3 of the periodic table (scandium and yttrium) and the 15 lanthanoides (lanthanum to lutetium). The term “rare-earth” is misleading, because these elements occur more frequently than their name would suggest. However, these elements are only found in a few economically viable sources ‐ primarily outside the EU. Therefore, REE are at the top of the EU’s list of critical raw materials.

Although often not recognized, REE materials are part of many high-tech devices and important gadgets for our daily life. They can be found, for example, in smartphones, televisions, computers, lasers, missiles, camera lenses, fluorescent light bulbs, catalytic converters, batteries, propulsion motors,magnets, and contrast agents to name only a few applications.

Objectives

The purpose of the webinar is to answer key questions such as:

  • What is the impact of using REE on reserves, resources, geopolitics, and the environment? 
  • How can REE recycling be improved and embedded in the circular economy? 
  • What are the present and future applications of REE for optical devices, magnets, catalysts and devices for energy conversion? 

Morning

10:00 – 10:10 | Opening by MEP Annalisa Corrado, European Parliament, Host, and Angela Agostiano, EuChemS President

10:10 – 10:20  |  Introductory remarks, Peter Roesky, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Scientific Chair of the event

10:20 – 10:30 | The EuChemS Table of Chemical Elements and Rare Earth Elements (REE), Nicola Armaroli, CNR – The Italian National Research Council and the European Chemical Society (EuChemS)

10:30 – 10:50  | REE extraction: reserves, resources, geopolitics,  environmental impact, Andrea Dini, CNR Pisa, Italy

10:50 – 11:10  | REE recycling and circular economy, Marie Perrin, ETH Zürich and CEO and co-founder of REEcover

11:10 – 11:30  |  The EU policy on REE and critical materials, Speaker from the European Commission (to be confirmed)

11:30 – 11:55  | Panel discussion led by Peter Roesky

11:55 – 12:00  | Closing by MEP

Afternoon

14:00 – 14:20 | Optical properties of REE materials and their applications, Andries Meijerink Utrecht

14:20 – 14:40 | Magnetic properties of REE materials and their applications, Mario Ruben, KIT Karlsruhe

14:40 – 15:00 | REE materials in catalysis and other applications, Evgueni Kirillov Rennes

10 MINUTES BREAK

15:10 – 15:30 | REE for the energy transition, Jürgen Gassmann

15:30 – 16:25 | Panel Discussion led by Angela Agostiano

16:25 – 16:30 | Conclusions by Peter Roesky

MEP Annalisa Corrado
Peter Roesky (Scientific Chair)
Angela Agostiano

Angela Agostiano is currently Full Professor at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy. Her area of expertise is Chemical-Physical Processes. She is currently involved with preparation and characterization of nanosized semiconductors for photochemical, environmental and sensing applications amongst other topics.

She was the first woman President of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI) from 2017 until 2019. During her presidency, she strongly promoted the European dimension of SCI and displayed organisational expertise and capacity to connect different disciplinary areas of chemistry, and between academia, industry and professional organizations. Working with issues related to major social challenges and developing credible and shared proposals and positions to support the image and culture of chemistry towards civil society and politics through drafting official positions on chemical weapons is also amongst her achievements.

She was elected as EuChems President-Elect during the 2022 General Assembly meeting in Lisbon, Portugal and began her full presidency in 2024. She is also the Chair of the EuChemS Task Group on Inclusion and Diversity.

Nicola Armaroli

Nicola Armaroli got the Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences in 1994 at the University of Bologna. Since 2007 he has been Research Director at CNR, the Italian National Research Council. He is member of the Italian National Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). Within EuChemS, he is an elected member of the Executive Board and a former chairman of the Working Party on Chemistry and Energy  He has published over 250 scientific papers and 12 books. He serves as consultant on energy and resources for international institutions and companies and has given tens of invited lectures worldwide.

His scientific activity is concerned with photochemistry and photophysics, in particular luminescent materials and systems for the conversion of light into electricity and fuels. He also studies the transition of the global energy system towards more sustainable models, also in relation to climate change and scarcity of natural resources.

He has received several awards as a recognition of his work.

Andrea Dini
Jürgen Gassmann
Evgueni Kirillov Rennes
Andries Meijerink
Marie Perrin
Mario Ruben