36
2021
Innovation
Unlocking the next level
of rare earths technology
Though still an industry niche, the recycling of rare earths is a dynamic and growing market. Let’s take a look at the work
experts believe could revolutionise the field.
T
he global rare earth metals market was
valued at some EUR 6.7 billion (US$ 8
billion) in 2018 and is expected to ex-
ceed EUR 12 billion (US$ 14.4 billion) by
2025. Following uptake in magnet-containing
products, the rare earths recycling sector is
projected to be worth close to EUR 2.7 bil-
lion (US$ 3 billion) by then. Several parties
are lining up to take advantage of this promis-
ing outlook.
UK start-up HyProMag is developing
technologies for recovering rare earth mate-
rials from e-scrap to benefit the manufacture
of electric motors. Company ceo Nick Mann
hopes hydrogen processing of magnetic scrap
(HPMS) will help end the ‘Chinese choke-
hold’ on valuable metals like neodymium.
HyProMag was co-founded by R&D spe-
cialists at the University of Birmingham who
pioneered a patented process for extracting
neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) rare earth
alloy powders from magnets embedded in
metal scrap and used electronics.
As a next step, the start-up wants to scale
up the HPMS process and convert rare earth
materials into new magnetic materials at the
pilot scale to demonstrate their quality in
terms of magnetic behaviour, mechanical
performance and corrosion resistance.
‘We believe there is a gap in the market for
material produced in the UK – and worldwide
– while there is a huge opportunity to recycle
end-of-life magnets, which are mostly going
unrecovered,’ Mann observes. The HPMS ap-
proach can fix that, it is believed.
Careful extraction
‘The problem with current technologies is
that you typically shred, for example, a hard
disk drive, and separate the metals after-
wards,’ observes Professor Allan Walton, who
supervised the original study at the University
of Birmingham. ‘Bear in mind that rare earth
magnets are extremely brittle.’
The powder generated by resizing them
is still magnetic and sticks to all the ferrous
scrap. It subsequently forms a big bowl of
material and also sticks to the shredder itself.
‘Not only is it incredibly difficult to recover
that metal content, the value of it is very low,’
Walton notes.
He goes on to explain: ‘We basically place
the magnet in a hydron reactor. We expose the
unit to hydrogen, which goes into the mate-
rial, at room temperature. The hydrogen is ab-
sorbed, and the material expands. It can’t take
the volume expansion and ultimately breaks
apart into a powder after about 40 minutes.’
Crucially, the powder generated is demag-
netised such that, after being spun around a
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