Searching patent information on the recovery of rare earth metals from electronic waste

Waste and electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), which is generally disposed of in landfills, contains valuable elements, called rare earth metals, and they are applicable in many industrial sectors. Only 1% of the rare earth elements are recycled from the residues mentioned above. This study aims to show a patent landscape in recovering rare earth metals from end-of-life electronic equipment. The patented methods were searched on the Orbit Intelligence platform (FamPat database), Espacenet, Google Patents and Octimine, using keywords and classification codes (IPC and CPC). China is the country with the greatest number of priority patent applications filed in this technical field, followed by the USA and Japan. The different techniques developed for recovering rare earth metals are hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy and biometallurgy or bioleaching. Hybrid treatments have been also patented. A focus on the biological treatment technologies for recovery of rare earth metals from e-waste was carried out.