Flash Joule Heating Technology

Flash Joule Heating (FJH) is a patented process that’s poised to transform metal extraction as we know it.

Developed in Houston, Texas, by renowned scientist Dr. James Tour at Rice University, FJH is a transformative technology for the extraction of valuable metals from industrial waste and raw materials. 

FJH uses proprietary chemistry and ultrafast electrical pulses to generate temperatures exceeding 3,000°C in milliseconds. This process liberates strategic and high-purity metals such as gallium, germanium, antimony, rare earth elements, and precious metals including gold, silver and platinum from advanced electronic components, military surplus, and semiconductor scrap without the use of acids or traditional smelting processes. 

This next-generation extraction solution enables rapid, sustainable, domestic, and low-emission processing of REEs and critical metals vital to defense, energy, and electronics sectors. 

FJH technology enables Flash Metals to deliver on its mission to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, to reshore strategic processing capabilities, to reduce reliance on foreign sources, and to build environmentally responsible domestic industrial capacity in the U.S. and its allied nations. Flash Metals USA is committed to advancing the technology required for U.S. leadership in critical materials innovation, national economic security and defense readiness.

ApplicationS

  • Flash Metals USA’s FJH solution aligns with the Department of Defense’s (DoD) priorities for sustainable, domestic, and rapid materials sourcing and supports readiness and supply chain security by enabling the efficient recovery of strategic and high-purity metals.  

    Key defense advantages include:

    • Recovery of High-Value Elements from Defense Scrap

    • Processing of DoD Surplus and Production Scrap

    • Secure, Closed-Loop Recovery Systems

    • Reduced Reliance on Foreign Suppliers

    • Qualification for Strategic Materials Programs

    • Environmentally Responsible Recovery

    • Rapidly deployable in the near term

  • Flash Metals USA is setting a new standard for mineral processing by introducing a resilient, adaptable and sustainable pathway for the extraction of critical metals from complex and unconventional sources.

    With FJH, we enable efficient processing of feedstocks that are typically considered too low-grade, refractory or contaminated for conventional methods, delivering a future-proof solution to meet rising global demand and geopolitical imperatives. This is essential in an era marked by supply chain volatility, rising environmental scrutiny, and the depletion of high-grade ores, resilience in mineral processing is no longer optional.

  • Enabling new approaches to processing and synthesizing advanced materials for the development of next-generation materials in defense and aerospace. FJH not only recovers critical metals but it also pioneers entirely new frontiers in materials science. 


    With the ability to deliver extreme temperatures in milliseconds and create novel chemical environments, FJH opens a transformative pathway for the synthesis, modification and enhancement of advanced materials which is crucial for innovation in defense, aerospace, energy storage, data processing and electronics.

  • Flash Metals USA is redefining the role of waste in the modern industrial landscape. FJH enable the recovery of valuable metals from materials once considered environmental liabilities, now turning by-products, waste streams and legacy pollution into sources of economic and strategic value. This approach supports both environmental restoration and resource security, aligning with national sustainability goals and Department of Defense (DoD) environmental mandates.

    Environmental remediation has traditionally been a cost center, requiring significant investment to treat, contain or dispose of contaminated materials. FJH shifts this paradigm by creating a technology-driven, revenue-generating path to waste valorization, minimizing environmental impact while recovering high-value critical and strategic metals.

Features

  • Unlike conventional thermal processes that require prolonged heating cycles, FJH delivers concentrated energy directly into the feedstock, triggering near-instantaneous physical and chemical transformations that make metals more accessible and extractable.

  • Intense heat from the FJH process selectively unlocks metal from ores and waste, processing underutilized fines and tailings resources, processing untapped Red Mud impoundments, reducing costs, decreasing the amount of reagents required and potentially decreasing the amount of water that is consumed in the extraction process, thus making metal extraction more sustainable.

  • FJH technology enables the construction of compact, closed-loop, modular processing units that can be deployed close to the source of feedstock, whether it be mine sites, recycling centers or Department of Defense facilities.

    These units are designed for fast setup, minimal infrastructure, and plug-and-play operation, making it possible to stand up strategic processing capacity in weeks, not years. This breakthrough approach minimizes logistical challenges, reduces environmental impact, and enables distributed processing across multiple sites simultaneously.

  • Energy efficiency is at the core of Flash Metals USA’s technological and operational philosophy. FJH has an alternative model for metal extraction by delivering heat directly and precisely to the materials being processed and only when needed. By significantly reducing energy loss and maximizing conversion efficiency, the FJH process achieves a much lower energy consumption per ton of processed material compared to thermal or chemical alternatives, thus contributing to lower operating costs and enhanced sustainability.

  • Flash Metals USA is redefining the environmental standard for critical metal extraction. Traditional processing methods such as high-temperature smelting and chemical leaching (which are resource-intensive, emit significant greenhouse gases and generate hazardous waste). FJH presents a breakthrough alternative that supports a lower-impact, more sustainable industrial future.