2024 - Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2024 Volume 12. Schultz Intl. Symp / Science of Intelligent & Sustainable Materials / Ferromagnetic & Superconducting Magnets
| Editors: | F. Kongoli, J-M. Dubois, M. Calin, S. Kobe |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2024 |
| Pages: | 236 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-998384-26-6 (CD) |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
CD shopping page
SUSTAINABLE AND INNOVATIVE PROCESSING OF REE MAGNETS FROM RECYCLED EOL MAGNETS
Spomenka Kobe1; Benjamin Podmiljsak1; Tomaž Tomše1; Zoran Samardzija1; Janez Kovač1; Laura Grau2; Damir Huremović3; Alenka Gruden Belavič3; Boris Saje4; Oliver Brooks5; Alba Berja Torres6; Adrian Quesada6; Carlo Burkhardt2;1JOŽEF STEFAN INSTITUTE, Ljubljana, Slovenia; 2PFORZHEIM UNIVERSITY, Pforzheim, Germany; 3ZEOS D.O.O., Ljubljana, Slovenia; 4KOLEKTOR MAGNET TECHNOLOGY GMBH, Essen, Germany; 5UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM, Birmingham, United Kingdom; 6SPANISH NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, Madrid, Spain;
Type of Paper: Invited
Id Paper: 77
Topic: 42
Abstract:
The European Union has set itself the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, a milestone that depends on the continent's ability to develop and implement clean energy and mobility solutions in a way that is both economically viable and environmentally sustainable. The amount of critical raw materials (CRM) needed to facilitate this energy transition is significant. In addition, industrial and household appliances will need to meet stringent energy efficiency standards to support this transition. The most energy-efficient electric motors and generators contain rare earth permanent magnets. While EU companies are world leaders in the production of electric motors, they are completely dependent on imports for the entire value chain of rare earth magnet materials. (Bernd Schaferet.al, A Report of the Rare Earth Magnets and Motors Cluster, Berlin 2021).
Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential components of these permanent magnets, which are critical for many applications that are vital to Europe's future. It is well known that REEs from China have been the main source for Europe, that supplies are uncertain, and that the Chinese production chain is generally unsustainable. At the same time, the demand for REEs for the production of new PMs is expected to double in 15 years.
In light of this data, our work focuses on the collection of EOL magnets and the sustainable recycling and reprocessing of PM from sources, concentrating on the most common and readily available source of economically recyclable electric motors: domestic appliances. We are developing new dismantling and recovery processes for PM on high-availability scrap and reprocessing lines. In HPMS (Hydrogen Processing of Magnetic Scrap)1,2 we use an already established method of hydrogenation followed by grinding, degassing, and coating of sensitive powders. The HDDR (Hydrogenation-Disproportionation-Desorption-Regeneration)3 process has been implemented to simplify and minimize the steps in the recycling process.
Initial, ongoing pilot trials for the production of sintered and bonded magnets from recycled magnets confirm the waste-free, economic processing and future independence from unstable REE sources. For the production of sintered magnets, a new sustainable process of rapid consolidation is used, while for bonded magnets the most sensitive part to protect the reactive powders is the coating with a few monolayers of chemically bound coating precursor. In addition to magnetic measurements, various analytical techniques (SEM, HRTEM, XPS) are used to characterize the powders obtained by HPMS and HDDR processes, as well as the final magnets.
*This work is part of the “INSPIRES” project financed by EIT RawMaterials, Proposal Number 20090 (project website: https://eitrawmaterials.eu/project/inspires/).