6 Student-Led Tech Projects That Battle Climate Change

The science behind what makes our planet's temperature rise is pretty straightforward. Pollutants like soot and greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide trap heat within the earth's atmosphere, the global average surface temperature goes up, ice caps melt, sea levels rise and extreme weather events become even more extreme.

However, American college students are coming with with some of the coolest ways to battle climate change and clean up domestic energy production.

From earning rewards while tracking your energy consumption to recharging your battery with a run, here are six projects giving a greener future the old college try.

1. REECycle

Recycling rare earth elements to save energy and make money

Ending the United States' dependence on fossil fuels is easier said than done. But REECycle, a process developed by students at the University of Houston, might make fueling the clean, green break from oil, coal and natural gas easier.

Efficient electric motors and wind turbines depend on neomagnets made from neodymium and dysprosium, two rare earth elements (REE) that are difficult to find and harmful to mine. However, REECycle has developed a way of reclaiming these elements from trashed electronics, and then reselling them for profit.

The process goes like this: REECycle removes the copper plating from the products, dissolves the neodymium and dysprosium in a solvent, ditches the leftover metals and then filters the REEs out to sell them to manufacturers. This, in turn, limits the need for freshly mined REEs, makes it easier and cheaper to produce efficient energy generators, and creates a financial incentive to do something good for the environment -- something oil companies rarely have unless a major spill happens.

To top it all off, less fossil fuel usage can lead to less dependence on foreign oil and more investment in domestic sources of clean energy.