The Baotou Research Institute of Rare Earth [Photo/Inner Mongolia Daily]

The Baotou Research Institute of Rare Earth -- located in Baotou city, in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region -- is seeking international input to help it commercialize its considerable scientific and technological breakthroughs, according to a report in the Baotou Daily.

Recently, the institute built an industrial test production line with an annual output of 300 tons of hydrogen storage alloys.

Officials said the production line is an achievement made by the Cooperative Research on the Preparation and Performance of the Rare Earth Y2FeSb2 Hydrogen Storage Alloys Project.

Officials said the project is a joint project of the institute and the Chemistry Department at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia.

They said that the institute’s Rare Earth Materials International Technology Cooperation Base -- one of the fourth batch of "International Science and Technology Cooperation Bases" approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2009 -- has continuously strengthened its international cooperation over the years.

It has undertaken a number of international projects with Sweden, France, Germany, Russia, Slovenia, Japan, India and other countries. They have been carried out in the fields of hydrogen storage, magnetic materials, magnetostriction, magnetic refrigeration and rare earth minerals processing.

At the same time, through exchanges with its partners and by holding international seminars, its international influence in the field of rare earth materials research and applications has been greatly enhanced, officials said.

Since the establishment of the base, it has undertaken a total of 15 international cooperation projects.

It has provided the technical and theoretical basis for rare earth hydrometallurgy and environmental protection engineering research, rare earth pyrometallurgy and environmental protection engineering research, rare earth functional materials, rare earth light alloys, applications research into rare earths in agriculture -- as well as rare earth analysis and detection technology.