Specific programme: Joint Programming Initiative “Research & Innovation programme on raw materials to foster circular economy” funded through ERA-MIN 3 Confund 2021 and AEI “Proyectos de Cooperación Internacional” (Proyecto PCI2022-132942, financiado por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y por la Unión Europea “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR).

UPV/EHU Partner Status: Beneficiary

UPV/EHU PI: Alejandro Müller

Project start: 01/05/2022
Project end:   30/04/2025
 

Brief description: The global demand of NdFeB permanent magnets (PMs), increased enormously in these last years due to the huge production of machines in which NdFeB magnets are key components: wind turbines, electric and hybrid vehicles and others. Since the world Rare Earth (RE) market is China’s controlled, one of the most promising solution for the future independence of Europe from the Chinese monopoly, is the reuse or recycle of RE-based PM from End of Life (EoF) magnets. The recent directives of the European Commission in terms of reducing dependence from imports and increased capability to produce and use raw materials, is focused on the Strategic Implementation Plan, in which one of the action areas is “Recycling of raw materials from products, buildings and infrastructure” .

The present project Recycling End of Life permanent magnets by innovative sintering and 3D printing (Rendering3D) is addressed to the development of a scientific and technical base for a route to recycle EoL NdFeB PMs in order to produce new magnets with similar or even better magnetic features. It involves the controlled milling of EoL magnets to a powder, which is fed to two pipelines. The “sintering” line leads to sintered magnets while the “3D printing” line leads to 3D printed bonded magnets. These processes mainly entail mechanical processing and no costly chemical or thermal process. with large environmental footprint. are involved. The general aim outlined above requires achievement of several particular goals: Processes to optimize a protocol to achieve submicrometric high quality magnetic powders from EoL magnets for the production of different types of magnets; and Products to obtain either isotropic and anisotropic sintered magnets and 3D printed customized shape bonded magnets. Finally, this project seeks to raise the awareness of companies using permanent magnets to contribute to the recovery of these magnets in a European Circular Economy Path, totally independent from third parties.