Critical mineral recovery
Selective electrochemical extraction, separation, and regeneration of valuable elements from ores, concentrates, residues, and end-of-life materials.
What MERP stands for
Multidisciplinary
Electrochemical
Resource Processing
01 / Lab overview
We develop electrochemical routes to recover, refine, and transform resources—from natural ores and minerals to industrial wastes and end-of-life materials.
Natural resources
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Waste-derived resources
MERP combines electrochemistry, extractive metallurgy, materials chemistry, and reactor engineering to create lower-carbon pathways for producing the materials and chemicals society depends on.
M
Multidisciplinary
E
Electrochemical
R
Resource
P
Processing
Our approach
02 / Across scalesWe use electricity as a precise tool for moving elements, controlling interfaces, and redesigning resource-intensive processes.
Our work connects molecular-level mechanisms with materials, electrochemical reactors, and process systems. This allows us to ask both fundamental questions—how ions, electrons, and molecules behave at electrified interfaces—and practical ones about selectivity, energy use, scale-up, and circularity.
The goal is to make resource processing more selective and less carbon-intensive, while creating new value from feedstocks that are currently discarded or underused.
Research directions
Where we work
Waste valorization and circular processing
Electrified pathways that convert industrial wastes, mining residues, and manufacturing scrap into useful materials and chemical feedstocks.
Electrosynthesis and reactor engineering
Molecular probes, operando analysis, and scalable reactor design for controlling industrial electrochemical transformations.
Selected work
Recent publications
S. Ren†, T. Ji†, S. S. Scott, J. Rumscheidt, S. S. Aamlid, G. V. Crescenzo, Y. Yang, A. S.R. Williams, L. J. Andrew, A. M. Hallas, M. Stolar, C. P. Berlinguette*. ACS Energy Lett. (2026)
Y. Kim, A. M. L. Jewlal, E. W. Lees, Z. B. Zhang, S. Ren, C. Donde, A. Valji, B. A. W. Mowbray, A. Sarkar, C. P. Berlinguette*. npj Mater. Sustain. (2026)
T. Ji†, S. Ren†, Y. Yang, G. Jiang, G. V. Crescenzo, S. S. Scott, Y. Kim, A. S. R. Williams, J. Rumscheidt, M. Stolar, C. P. Berlinguette*. Nat. Commun. (2025)
T. Ji†, S. Ren†, G. Jiang, Y. Yang, S. Ma, C. E. B. Waizenegger, Y. Kim, A. M. L. Jewlal, M. Stolar, C. P. Berlinguette*. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2025)
Work with us
Build the next generation of electrochemical resource processes.
We welcome graduate and undergraduate researchers interested in electrochemistry, resource recovery, and sustainable processing.
View opportunities