Future progress in AI and bitcoin may become paralyzed by enormous energy requirements.

Manufacturing of computer chips involves ion implantation via particle accelerators, which are generally expensive due to relatively large size and electric power requirements.

Also, for electronics, the unique magnetic, electrochemical and luminescent properties of rare earth elements are utilized, for example, in smart phones, hard disk drives, electric vehicles, wind and solar energy, medical equipment and defense electronics.

Some rare-earth metals (and atomic numbers) commonly used in electronics include lanthanum(57), cerium(58), neodymium(60), samarium(62), europium(63), terbium(65), and dysprosium(66).

Additional details are found in https://www.jjsmanufacturing.com/blog/rare-earth-elements-electronics-manufacturing

Although the rarest {thulium) is 125 times more prevalent in earth's crust than gold - and most prolific (cerium) is 15,000 times more abundant, REEs are not found in solid clumps or seams but instead are unevenly distributed over the earth's crust - which makes mining challenging. Chemically separating one REE from another for purity is also difficult. Therefore, REEs are expensive to produce.

Solute ion linear alignment (SILA) was explained in ASME ES2010-90396, “…Solute Ion Linear Alignment Propulsion”, where it was shown that 10E+16 ions of Na+ and Cl-, i.e.,

10E+9 ions over 1-meter-long electrode x 10E+7 ions over 1 cm-wide electrodes
Coulomb force of about 10E-12 Newtons between each pair of ions, or 10E+9 ions/meter,

F = 10E-12 Newtons x 10E+9 pairs of ions = 10E-3 Newtons at end of 1-meter-long electrode (without multiplying by cross-force-factor 10E+7 !!!).

Using Stokes Law, F=6πηrV,

where r = 5 x 10E-10 m, η = 10E+3 Newton-sec2/m2.

Solving for Velocity V,

V= 10E+8 m/s

SILA has been previously illustrated in these websites:

http://contest.techbriefs.com/2012/entries/sustainable-technologies/2589

http://contest.techbriefs.com/2014/entries/sustainable-technologies/4465

(Includes magnetic-field-separation)

http://contest.techbriefs.com/2020/entries/medical/10431

Generally, nuclear fusion requires velocities in the range of 10E+6 m/s so V= 10E+8 m/s exceeds that requirement.

Exothermic nuclear fusion via SILA is described in this website:

http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3833

Therefore, SILA should provide very low-cost, significantly reduced size particle accelerators for ion implantation with significantly reduced power requirements, or for magnetic-field-separation, and is the only practical method for the energy requirements of AI and bitcoin either directly or via exothermic nuclear fusion.

SILA is the only practical method to perform endothermic nuclear fusion in order to produce REEs from lighter, more abundant elements on the Periodic Table.

FIG. 1 illustrates as an example the production of dysprosium (66-atomic wt. ~162.5) from more abundant copper (29-atomic wt. ~63.6) and rubidium (37-atomic wt. ~85.5), which is in Group 1 in the Periodic Table along with sodium and potassium, via endothermic nuclear fusion. The process may be formed by collisions of Rb+ and Cu+ ion beams or by impact of an Rb+ ion beam into solid copper. Rubidium is soluble in water such as in RbOH while copper is soluble in water via copper sulfate CuSO4-. Although the sum of atomic weights of copper and rubidium do not equal the atomic weight of dysprosium, at least an isotope of dysprosium should be formed.

Therefore, in addition, SILA should enable relatively low-cost production of rare earths without significant geographical restrictions, or by magnetic-field-separation.