Novel recycling and reprocessing of permanent magnets
The transition to a low carbon society and energy efficiency by 2050 (“The EUs Green Deal”) will require radical solutions, especially in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which have to be reduced by 80%. The major contributing segments are the development of e-mobility and eco-power generation, which will need highly efficient electric motors to meet the target. This can only be achieved by using high-performance rare earths-transition metal permanent magnets (RE-TM PMs) like Nd-Fe-B in such motors and generators. From this perspective, RE-TM PMs are an important subject of further research with aiming at even improved properties and performances. However, REs are on the EU's list of most critical raw materials, which requires holistic measures encompassing their recycling that will in the future accompany their primal development. There is already a large pool of RE-TM PMs based applications that are already at their end of life (EOL) (hard disk drives for example), the new e-applications like electric vehicles and wind turbines that are about to come to their end of life in the near future. However, the current recycling is too expensive for the EUs to conduct so, that is why the proposed project “nOvel reCycling And ReprocessIng of permaNent mAgnets”- OCARINA proposes a new feasible recycling technology of EOL magnets that would reduce EU dependence of RE imports. With this we are killing two flies in one run, as the new recycling route offers to tailor and improve the magnetic properties inside out, that was up to now impossible. ER is to tackle the proposed thematic is hosted by the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI), Department for Nanostructured (K7) materials, where the complementary and synergetic knowledge are used for the project success.