Rare earths are everywhere in the news. The technology to turn them into usable alloys? That’s been stuck in the 19th century: energy-intensive, emissions-heavy and dependent on hazardous fluoride salts.
Gadolyn’s D-DIRECT platform takes a different approach: single-pass oxide reduction, no carbon-based reductants, water as the byproduct. The 2025 R&D 100 Award recognizes what that could mean for cleaning up the middle of the critical minerals supply chain.
In this short interview, CEO Chris Haase, CTO Orlando Rios, and COO David Weiss talk about why rethinking a century-old process matters, and what actually fueled the work (spoiler: not just coffee).
