Task Specific Ionic Liquids for the Recovery of Rare Earth Element Europium from Coal Ash

To meet the anticipated global transition to cleaner energy alternatives, the demand for critical metals must be met in all economies. Among the European Union designated critical metals, Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are the ones the supply of which has a current global over-dominance. Notably, Europium (Eu), a REE with a unique electronic structure that renders it critical for the manufacture of high precision luminescent and magnetic equipment has a current limited supply that needs to be addressed. To achieve this objective, its production from sources other than conventional geological deposits must be considered, and the potential for production using coal ash deposits from coal fired power plants deposit is the focus of the present review. Therefore, we have reviewed extensive literature to show the enormous potential of Task Specific Ionic Liquids (TSILs) for the recovery of Europium from coal ash deposits. Accordingly, we have shown that given the versatility in the design and manufacture of TSILs, the potential for the diversification of Europium supply from coal ash to mitigate over-monopoly in the supply chain is attractive and must be explored.