ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,378,640, issued on Aug. 5.
"Composition and method or recovering rare-earth elements" was invented by Bradley Stockmann (St. Louis).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed is a method for recycling metal-chelates by separating the metal or metal ion from the chelate by forming a metal salt or metal precipitate apart from the chelator. In various embodiments, gadolinium-chelates, which are used as MRI contrast agent and which create vial hold-up material that is otherwise discarded, are acid or solvent treated to promote separation of the gadolinium from the chelate for downstream sale or further processing."
The patent was filed on Oct. ...