The thing about this battle over rare earths is that there was this old technology that never got much headline news and now may be an option because it is green and doesn’t require any rare earth metals. Also, when I started to do some research, a bunch of automotive names popped up like BMW, Cummins, Toyota, Isuzu, Komatsu, Honda, Volvo, VW and more. Hydrogen ICE produce heat and H2O as a waste product. It was interesting to read about this. I’m not trying to stir up controversy on the EV issue. This looks really interesting to me because you aren’t putting these 5-10 thousand pound batteries in the car using all the rare earth minerals and it doesn’t stress the grid like the EV’s and then there is all this Data center buildout that is occurring. I would be interested in one of these vehicles as a daily driver. Apparently they are energy efficient to getting more mpg than fossil fuels…doc
Top 10 hydrogen combustion engine manufacturers | Verified Market Research
Toyota Patents A Cleaner, More Efficient Hydrogen Combustion Engine
Zero-Emission Technology: Cummins And Anadolu Isuzu Kick Off H2-ICE Coach Test – Hydrogen Fuel News
Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) in the Real World: 5 Uses You’ll Actually See (2025)
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Hydrogen fuel cells is an alternative to fuel EVs. Hydrogen jet engines could be the future of aviation.
Cost of hydrogen remains an issue.
I would not be surprised to learn that rare elements could play a role in efficient hydrogen production. Maybe not rare earths but noble metals like platinum or rhodium. They are part of catalytic converters. And can be effective catalysts for chemical processes. But even nickel or chromium works sometimes.
This is an area you expect researchers to investigate. We wish them much success.
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These articles are about internal combustion engines. I read an article recently about Cummins diesel using hydrogen with a minimal amount of diesel (diesel was used for ignition instead of a spark). It burns very clean, produced much more power than either diesel or gasoline and was a reasonable alternative in these internal combustion engines. I’m thinking a lot of the engines (generators, pumps, etc) might be able to be retrofitted to handle this alternative to fossil fuels but I’m not sure…doc
I suppose it may have its niche. Hydrogen isn’t “green”, really (if that’s the goal). It is derived from (mostly) natural gas.
I am long QS. They (and others) are developing alternative battery solutions. At least most of them don’t involve rare earths. So, it is likely the “rare earths sourcing” (China) is a short term problem. We appear to be close to having an effective, manufacturable solid state battery.
Some would say hydrogen is not a fuel. Natural sources are rare. It almost always comes from other energy sources and/or fuels. Recent reports say there are some natural sources but so far extent is unknown and they remain undeveloped.
Rare earths are used mostly in strong permanent magnet. They are especially important in motors, especially EV motors and perhaps in speakers.
Letter to the editor in todays Wall Street Journal points out that environmental movement caused the US to disfavor all forms of mining. We stopped funding US Bureau of Mines in 1995. Being behind on rare earths should come as no surprise. That was faulty, misguided leadership. Mining is still a dirty industry. But we need it.
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True. And we have it. The US is the second biggest producer of rare earth minerals. What we lack is processing facilities. So, we often have to ship it overseas to be processed. That is from only one or two mines. I read they have found more deposits in MT and WY. Don’t know if they’re moving to exploit those or not. If they do, they’ll need even more processing facilities.
I believe they are also looking at sifting through mining tailings, as some small amounts are often present from other mining activities. Though I’m not in any way an expert on that.
But China is “blessed” with an unusually high concentration of rare earths within their national borders.