Neumann Systems to Extract Rare Earth Metals from Flyash:

Outside the Ray Nixon Power Plant south of Colorado Springs sits 3.3 million tons of coal ash the remnant of three decades of coal-fired power generation. Nationwide, 20 percent of flyash, is recycled into concrete. However, since the 80,000 to 100,000 tons of flyash produced each year by Colorado Springs Utilities’ two coal-fired power plants doesn’t consistently meet construction industry standards, it collects in a landfill that grows by hundreds of tons every day.

David Neumann, CEO of Neumann Systems Group in Colorado Springs, sees that ash as a gold mine. It may be a source of valuable rare earth elements such as neodymium, yttrium and europium. Those and other rare earths are vital ingredients in high tech devices such as cell phones, advanced batteries, wind turbines and solar panels. Chinese mines have a near-monopoly on rare earth production, but Neumann believes he can extract the same materials from flyash at competitive prices.

Neumann Systems Group has applied for three patents on the process and formed a subsidiary, NeuMetals Inc., to commercialize the system. Neumann is the inventor of NeuStream, a new technology to clean coal-fired power plant emissions that Colorado Springs Utilities has been testing at its Martin Drake Power Plant. As a by-product of scrubbing the emissions, the NeuStream system can produce precursors to sulfuric acid and nitric acid — some of the very chemicals needed to dissolve rare earths out of the ash.