CEE 4520

Sustainable Recovery of Critical Metals and Advanced Material Conversions

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

The course is motivated by the need to educate students in the fundamental science and emerging technologies for recovering critical metals and in advanced material conversions for a sustainable climate, energy, and environmental future. The course will introduce fundamental chemical pathways for recovering energy critical metals from various substrates including natural and urban ores. The ubiquity of metals in daily products motivate the development of sustainable approaches to recover metals via urban mining, which will be discussed in this course. The course will also introduce advanced material conversions for the energy transition including emerging electrochemical and photochemical pathways to upcycle low value emissions into high value products.

Exploratory Studies (CU-SBY)

Last 3 terms offered 2023FA

Learning Outcomes REF-FA25

• Analyze sustainable pathways to recover critical metals and convert low value emissions into higher value resources.
• Evaluate energy- and material-efficient pathways for upcycling materials.
• Co-create natural and urban mining solutions and advanced material conversions in teams.

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