Recycled magnets gain rare metals from WEEE

A pilot recycling plant for rare earth magnets is planned for the University of Birmingham.

Rare earths are used in magnets for electronic devices, and the process will take these from end-of-life electric motors, electronic waste and components, reclaiming neodymium, iron and boron. These will then by recycled into commercial-grade magnetic materials, the university said.

Professor Allan Walton, co-director of the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials, said: "This pilot plant paves the way for the UK to take a leading role in high-performance magnet recycling."

He said it was vital to develop a sustainable supply of such materials and reduce dependency on virgin mined metals.

The plant will use a patented process, developed by the university, in which hydrogen liberates and breaks down the used magnets into an alloy powder for remanufacture.

Called hydrogen processing of magnet scrap, this was first tested in the laboratory using an old washing machine drum to extract the rare earth alloys from products such as hard disk drives, speakers and electric motors.

Following initial successes, the technology has been scaled up to the pilot project.

A 1,200-litre pressure vessel will be used to process up to 100kg of magnets a day. The resulting powder is demagnetised during this process, and so can be refined before going through pressing and sintering, in which the reclaimed materials are compacted and heated to form new magnets.

Life Cycle Solutions will provide hard disk drive scrap, while European Metal Recycling will supply speaker assemblies.