New AGE Founder and Chairman Mike Wilson served as a resource for the recent Forbes article. See excerpt below:
New Alternative Green Energy (NewAGE) is among a handful of startups looking to use coal to produce hydrogen via electrolysis. While the Texas company’s patented coal electrolytic cell process yields both clean coal and revenue producing hydrogen, a secondary byproduct from coal fly ash yields REEs.
NewAGE founder Michael C. Wilson explains that that once coal is burned, 16% by volume becomes fly ash which contains a mix of rare earths depending on where the coal is mined. According to recent research, REEs are “100 times more prevalent in coal fly ash than anywhere else on earth,” Wilson says. That’s particularly true of coal from Texas’ Powder River Basin.
Wilson has been in discussion with DOE, which is funding research into fly ash REE harvesting thanks to the 2017 Executive Order. Electrochemical processes to separate REEs from the fly ash are not yet economically viable but the government is so desirous of critical minerals that NewAGE and others are being encouraged by DOE to continue research and development.
