Hydrova’s technology portfolio builds off of core principles of physics to unlock more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable processing in the minerals and metals industry.
Rare Earth Elements
Sono-assisted bioleaching
Hydrova’s sono-assisted bioleaching technology enables drastic improvements to efficiency and sustainability during production of a variety of metals including rare earth metals, precious metals, and more.
Sono-assisted bioleaching works by using ultrasound to increase the efficiency of leaching with an organic acid produced by bacteria. Rare earth metals (REMs) can be produced from bastnasite and monazite ore deposits using sono-assisted bioleaching with significant reductions to processing cost and environmental impact. The growing demand for advancing technologies made from REMs is predicted to reach $2.5 trillion worldwide by 2030.
Organic acid leaching works by solubilizing metals using organic acids from the metabolic/enzymatic activity of microorganisms. The energy consumption of the extraction process is reduced by 91% by using ultrasound. Compared to traditional solvent extraction, which can require hundreds of mixing and settling steps and create a large amount of acid and base waste, bioleaching requires a single extraction stage, producing no acid waste. The solid byproducts of the leaching process can be used as a substrate for phytomining, minimizing the overall waste production.
Hydrometallurgical Dross Recycling
Hydrova’s DrossZero™ process enables complete waste valorization and decarbonization during secondary aluminum processing.