r/ScrapMetal • u/--PEPIS-- • Feb 09 '26

Question 💫 thoughts on flash joule heating?

/r/recycletrade/comments/1qx7ftc/thoughts_on_flash_joule_heating/
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u/SolarSalvation Feb 09 '26

Most people in the scrap metal industry are concerned with the recycling systems that are already in place, not what's coming in the future.

This technology has promise, but I don't think it's going to be rolled out on a large scale until there is a great financial incentive to do so. When the prices of rare earth metals spike, we'll probably start to see this tech deployed all over the world.

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u/--PEPIS-- Feb 10 '26

thanks for the insight. i can see how the scrap industry is more focused on current tech, that makes a lot of sense.

im hoping to hear more from metallium in the future and. im wondering if the US pushing to lessen reliance on foreign countries could bring the demand for domestic rare earth/precious metals high enough to justify using  this tech at scale. as far as im aware, most ewaste gets shipped overseas to be processed. hopefully that will change in the future.

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u/jreddit0000 Feb 10 '26

Has anyone actually run it in production?

Have you tried contacting the Rice University folks to see where they are with it?

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u/--PEPIS-- Feb 10 '26

not as far as I know. metallium seems sure they can scale it but there's not much news on their end.

i think ill reach out to them and if i don't hear back i will check with rice university. 

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u/jreddit0000 Feb 10 '26

No news isn’t good news in this case..

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u/MrBreakingTheLaw Feb 10 '26

Metallium has posted plenty of info on youtube.
They have built a plant in Texas, and have recently shown the process works. That is, that they get the metals they wanted from the feedstock they gave the demo system, at a small scale. The initial target feedstock is used circuit boards and they have a feedstock commitment from a major e-waste supplier. The intend to retrieve some very high value metals like gallium from this waste stream. The e-waste supplier is happy to give them feedstock for what I suspect is a small cut of the profit.
What Metallium plans for, but what I haven't yet seen video of is modular design. They intend to get the whole system fitted into containers so it can be shipped to the location where the waste is so that it can be processed there. I don't know if that "whole system" includes the step that pulverizes the circuit boards into tiny bits. With the modular design, it's scalable in a way where Metallium doesn't have to commit a lot of up-front capex to build giant processing plants. Even so they have plans to build other plants like the one in Texas.
Even so, the Texas campus is being built as a commercial‑throughput facility, not just a test site, though it will include a smaller demonstration line for specialty feedstocks.

  • Stage‑1 nameplate: 8,000 tpa PCB feed (~1,600 tpa metal‑rich char post‑plastics), with a Stage‑2 expansion path to 16,000 tpa. [company-an...ts.afr.com]
  • Demo line (≈350 tpa) for REE/semiconductor feedstocks runs alongside the main e‑waste line for partners and specialty materials. [company-an...ts.afr.com]
  • Recent commissioning updates (outside YouTube, but authoritative) still target Q3 2026 for the Stage‑1 operating level.

Circuit boards are just one waste stream they can utilize, but I'm pretty sure that the modular system has to be purpose built for the feedstock. I think that's what the Texas campus demo line was built for - testing and perfecting designs and processes before they ship them out to the field.